UK-based Collegia, the first combined Auto-Enrolment (workplace pension) and Personal Pensions provider, has secured £500,000 in capital ahead of its upcoming launch.
Collegia‘s management noted that they’ll use the proceeds to support their planned UK launch this month and will also use the funds for their ongoing product and business development. The company’s main product is its Auto Enrolment pension technology.
Collegia is the United Kingdom’s only APP based Auto Enrolment pension service that offers the added flexibility of a personal pension, which means that it’s transportable between employers and for periods of self-employment. This makes it a “true” pension for life. The company has received Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and HM Revenue & Customs or HMRC approval for its innovative approach to streamlining Auto Enrolment provision in the UK.
The funding managed to attract international investors such as angel investments from Hong Kong, as well as individual and family office investors from Italy, Dubai, Brazil and the UK. Collegia is being led by its founders CEO Eduardo Chazan and COO Riccardo Gasparini who met each other while they were doing their MBA at Oxford Said Business School.
The company is focused on the following pension goals:
- Better for individuals – APP based, real-time, portable and rich functionality greatly improves user understanding and overall experience.
- Better for Employers – positioning Collegia as a key benefit for workers instead of an added cost to their employers, while also being able to lower administration costs and improving the quality of the service.
- Better for the environment – Collegia works with Alliance Bernstein, the leading ESG investment provider, and Collegia funds will reportedly be ESG compliant.
Eduardo Chazan, Founder and CEO at Collegia, stated:
“Worth almost $100 billion annually, the UK Auto-Enrolment market serves more than 10 million employees and 1.6 million businesses. But the products on offer to employees and employers alike are unfit for purpose, with an almost complete lack of innovation. Millions of employees have no access to an APP and the industry is still debating how to produce a better ‘annual’ statement. Everyone should have a pension that is fully accessible in real time, transportable between employers and adaptable to periods of employment and self-employment. It has to be welcoming, stress free, and critically, to offer investment choices such as access to ESG investments.”
Marco Yi, investor, remarked:
“With the sole focus of attracting funds under management the Auto-Enrolment sector has lost sight of its primary objective – to look after employees. We are confident that the government and regulators will have to start taking this seriously, which is why we see such promise from innovative players like Collegia, in an market that is ripe for change.”