Human Interest, the 401(k) provider, announced significant steps towards public company readiness with financings of $267M and key hires and board appointments, “all of whom share deep, first-hand experience taking companies public.”
The funding includes a previously unannounced Series E raise “led by Marshall Wace and Baillie Gifford, bringing Human Interest to more than $700M in total primary and secondary financings.”
The U.S. is facing an undeniable retirement gap.
Steve Binetter, Portfolio Manager at Marshall Wace said:
“America’s aging population combined with continued pressure on social security reserves are creating a tremendous need for better, more accessible retirement solutions. And yet approximately half of Americans lack any retirement savings. We believe Human Interest can play a vital role in satisfying this hugely underserved market by providing a combination of customer-centric, low-cost, and easy-to-use products. We are excited to partner with Human Interest.”
Adds Robert Natzler, Portfolio Manager for Baillie Gifford, said:
“We believe in supporting extraordinary businesses that deploy technology to solve real problems. Human Interest is exactly that kind of company. It has found a new way to viably serve a large segment of the US population who were previously out of reach for retirement providers.”
This latest raise was designed to “bring additional top-tier public equity investors onto the cap table.”
Human Interest is approaching cash flow break-even and “has enough cash on the balance sheet to fund continued 70%+ year-over-year growth without additional capital.”
Tripp Faix has joined the Human Interest team “as Chief Financial Officer.”
Prior to Human Interest, Faix was “the CFO at Mambu, a core banking software provider based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.”
Faix was also the CFO at Marqeta, a modern card issuing platform, “based in Oakland, California, where he led their $15B initial public offering.”
Jeff Buckley has also joined the Human Interest finance team “as Chief Accounting Officer. Buckley’s past roles include CAO of Palantir and Zynga, where he was a key leader in public company readiness initiatives.”
Human Interest also announced two new appointments “to its board of directors with strong IPO experience: Leslie Stretch and Roxanne Oulman. Stretch was previously the CEO of CallidusCloud and Medallia, both of which he took public. Oulman was the CFO of CallidusCloud and Medallia during their IPOs.”
Human Interest has already become the primary 401(k) provider “in approximately 70% of the top 100 U.S. payroll systems.”
In 2023, Human Interest sold “approximately 20% of all new 401(k) plans in the U.S., and expects to sell over 25% this year6.”
Human Interest has over “a million employees on its platform and passed $100M in annual recurring revenue earlier this year.”
Revenue growth of approximately 70% YoY “is expected in 2024.”
Jeff Schneble, CEO of Human Interest said:
“As we continue to revolutionize the retirement industry, we’re being very deliberate about how we build out our cap table, leadership team, and board. We have a short list of investors we want to partner with now and in our future as we look towards becoming a public company. Baillie Gifford and Marshall Wace were both at the top of the list and we’re grateful to have their support. Likewise, we look forward to our new hires and board members applying their deep IPO experience in the years ahead.”
As noted in the update, Human Interest Inc. is “a full-service 401(k) and 403(b) provider that seeks to make it easy and affordable for small and medium-sized businesses to help their employees save for retirement.”
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, Human Interest has “helped employees at 25,000+ companies access retirement benefits and a path to financial independence.”
