Cushon raises £35m and acquires pension scheme

UK workplace pension and ISA provider Cushon has raised £35m and acquired a pension scheme.

Cushon has now raised £61m in the past two years, following the new round of funding.

Existing investors Augmentumn Fintech and AshGrove Capital, an independent pan-European lending firm, contributed to the round.

The funding will be used to help develop the fintech's mobile app and beef up its overall operations, Cushon said.

The money will also be used to fund Cushon’s purchase of Creative, which manages the Creative Pension Trust, an auto-enrolment pension scheme.

Cushon said that, following the purchase of Creative, it has doubled its assets under management from £840m to £1.7bn across 400,000 customers. Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

The purchase of Creative marks Cushon’s third acquisition in two years, as it looks to beef up of its pensions operations.

Cushon says it has a strong ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) focus, having launched the UK’s ‘first’ net-zero pension.

Ben Pollard, CEO and founder of Cushon, said: “The funding will continue to fuel Cushon’s growth, enable us to scale even faster, and accelerate some exciting new features within our app.

“It will also support the acquisition of Creative which not only doubles the reach of our app-first climate-friendly pension but also incorporates the talent, expertise and credibility of the Creative business. 

Tim Levene, CEO, Augmentum, said: “Workplace pensions and ISAs are ready for transformative change. Public policy will continue to encourage people to save more and there is a significant opportunity to successfully challenge incumbents struggling to transform digitally. 

“Cushon has become the leading digital disruptor in this space with a world class technology platform and a truly innovative product.”