In popular culture, stereotypes of successful retirement are replete with imagery of golf courses, sunbelt condos and cruises.
But in reality, retirement planning for most people is less about funding a luxury life of leisure and more about covering basics like grocery bills, housing expenses and even medical care, without a steady paycheck.
For a large share of American workers, 401k plans and IRA accounts play a big role in laying the groundwork for a successful retirement. And as contributions to these accounts grow, a host of startups are raising capital for tools and platforms to manage where the money is spent.
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Per Crunchbase analysis, since last year over $900 million in venture and seed funding has gone to U.S. companies focused on retirement planning and investment tools. We lay out a list of 11 who have raised funding in the past year below:
The latest announcement comes from Pontera, formerly FeeX, which announced its name change and confirmed it raised $80 million across three funding rounds led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in the past 18 months, with the most recent, per Crunchbase, a $45 million round in November. The 10-year-old, New York-based Pontera provides tools for financial advisers to securely and compliantly manage clients’ retirement accounts.
The largest recent funding recipient, meanwhile, is San Mateo, California-based Guideline, a retirement platform for small businesses that has raised $339 million to date, including a $200 million Series E last summer led by General Atlantic.
Another major investment recipient is San Francisco-based Human Interest, which offers tools to help employees of small and medium-sized businesses save for retirement. The 7-year-old company raised $334 million to date, including a $200 million Series D in August.
Investors are also backing platforms for workers to invest retirement savings in nontraditional assets. The most recent big round along these lines was for iTrustCapital, a digital asset investment platform that allows clients to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through their retirement accounts. The Los Angeles company raised $125 million in a Series A round in January.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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