Penfold closes £7m Series A funding round to accelerate growth

Penfold, the digital pensions platform, today announces the close of its £7m Series A funding round. This follows the significant expansion of the business and the launch of its workplace pension platform in late 2021.

The round was led by Bridford Group, an investment group that deploys its permanent proprietary capital in a range of sectors, including tech, sustainability, and biotech. Bridford Group and its affiliates have been invested in Penfold since its first funding round in 2018.

Penfold also opened the round to its customer base and wider community with a crowdfund which reached 190% of its goal from over 900 contributors. Penfold launched its Series A in order to expand the pension provider’s workplace pension division, which has signed more than 150 businesses since its launch ten months ago, including some of the UK’s biggest scale-ups such as Cuvva, Elvie and Attest.

Penfold’s workplace pension scheme is designed to give employees greater control and ease of access over their pension, and to transform an expensive and often underappreciated benefit into a powerful retention tool for businesses.

Penfold’s goal is to help everyone save more for retirement, and by offering its pension to everyone, from the self-employed to large employers, Penfold can deliver on its aim to be the pension that stays with you for life.

Chris Eastwood, Co-Founder at Penfold, comments: “We’re delighted to have built on the continued backing of our existing investors in our Series A raise with another hugely successful crowdfund. It’s been a big year for Penfold – from launching our workplace pension offering, to reaching £100m AUA – and this latest funding round is a testament to the growth already achieved by the business, as well as the hard work of our team.

“We are incredibly thankful to our investors who share our vision of getting more people engaged with their retirement savings in a meaningful way.”

“This funding will have a huge impact on our ability to bring our pension to more people, especially as we look to expand our workplace pension offering and give savers more control over their pension. Today’s funding is another step toward building a modern pension that helps everyone save more for their retirement.”

Bridford Group, lead investor, comments: “The pensions industry represents a huge market – with £8trn in savings in the UK alone. Despite this, many people remain uninterested and unengaged in their pensions. With so many people not saving enough, there’s a real opportunity for a new provider to step in.”

“By building its administration and operations arm from scratch, Penfold is uniquely positioned to solve this problem. It’s able to offer a better, more efficient option to savers and businesses alike.”

“In the nearly 3 years we’ve been working with the team at Penfold, we’ve been consistently impressed with the high quality of everything they do and the rapid growth of the business. In particular, the rapid roll-out of the workplace pension offering to 150 signed businesses in well under a year has been most impressive.”