Harbottle & Lewis has advised global retirement savings technology platform provider, Smart (www.smart.co), on its £165 million in Series D funding.
The London company powers the Smart Pension Master Trust, one of the ‘big four’ UK auto enrolment master trusts (www.smartpension.co.uk).
Chrysalis Investments led the round with a £75m equity investment, with additional investors to be announced in the coming weeks. The overall round will comprise £110m of primary and £55m of secondary equity.
The investment from Chrysalis, whose portfolio includes Klarna, Wise (formerly TransferWise), Starling Bank, The Hut Group and Graphcore, as well as wefox, the insurtech unicorn from Germany, will see Smart further grow its retirement technology platform offering in the UK, the US, Australia and the Middle East, with additional territories to follow.
Smart saw enormous growth in 2020, with assets on the platform growing by more than 160% to £1.8bn and the successful rollouts of the Smart platform with Bank of Ireland’s insurance arm, New Ireland Assurance, and with global insurance giant Zurich and the Dubai International Financial Centre in the Middle East, both at the height of the pandemic.
Chrysalis Investments joins Legal & General, J.P. Morgan, the Link Group, Barclays and Natixis Investment Managers, the strategic investors to date in Smart.
Tony Littner, Corporate partner and Head of the firm’s Venture Capital Group said: “At Harbottle, we have a long standing history in and reputation for acting for disruptive and innovative businesses like Smart. Having supported Smart through all of its previous strategic investments, we feel privileged and proud to have been able to do so again on their latest investment from Chrysalis”.
On working with Harbottle, Claire Altman, Chief Corporate Officer at Smart commented: “Smart’s growth is extraordinarily fast and multi-faceted. Finding partners capable of advising our globally disruptive retirement technology platform business is not easy, but Harbottle & Lewis’ stand-out expertise in the tech space, and culture of trusted long-term relationships fits our requirements perfectly. We’ve built a partnership over many years now, and Tony Littner, Tom Macleod, Michael Finch and the wider team have been real enablers in our mission to transform retirement, savings and financial well-being, across all generations, around the world. They have supported us on each of our previous strategic investments, and have been invaluable in our £165 million Series D, a milestone for us both in terms of the size of the round, and in joining Chrysalis Investments’ portfolio, with further investors to be announced in the coming weeks.“
