Penfold promoted to Starling Bank’s personal account marketplace

A shift in focus for the pensions provider as it targets employed savers.

Over two years after Penfold joined Starling Bank’s Business Marketplace in July 2020, the pensions provider has also been added to the bank’s personal account Marketplace.

The reason for the move is that Penfold has expanded beyond the self-employed traders it initially targetted, now offering personal pensions for employed savers looking to consolidate old pots.

Penfold becomes the second pensions provider on Starling’s personal account Marketplace, joining PensionBee which has operated there since 2018.

Penfold co-founder Chris Eastwood called the move “evidence of our growth as a business and development of our offerings to all types of savers.”

Between 2020 and 2021 Penfold saw year-on-year growth of successful pension transfers of 341 per cent.

Earlier this month the fintech reported it now has 40,000 customers, compared to 18,178 customers it had at the end of 2020.

“We hope our addition to Starling’s Personal Marketplace will help more of these tech savvy savers to build a pension pot for later life.”

Last year Penfold, which is approved by the FCA to operate pensions rather than rely on third parties, closed an $8.5m (£6m) funding round, $4m of which was from a crowdfunding campaign. 

Last month, it teamed up with a research firm to pilot a scheme, which will allow freelancers to automatically save money each month towards their retirement.