Human Interest Lays Public-Ready Foundation With $267M in Financings, New Key Hires, and New Board Members

/EIN News/ -- SAN FRANCISCO, July 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Human Interest, the fastest-growing 401(k) provider¹,  today announced significant steps towards public company readiness with financings of $267M² and key hires and board appointments, all of whom share deep, first-hand experience taking companies public.

Latest raise

The fundings include 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.³

The U.S. is facing an undeniable retirement gap. “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,” says Steve Binetter, Portfolio Manager at Marshall Wace. “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, “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.⁴

New CFO and CAO hires

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.

New board members: Leslie Stretch and Roxanne Oulman

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.

Growth trajectory - path to public company readiness

Human Interest has already become the primary 401(k) provider in approximately 70% of the top 100 U.S. payroll systems⁵. 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 2024.⁷

“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,” says Jeff Schneble, CEO of Human Interest. “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.”

Learn more about how Human Interest makes it easy and affordable for businesses to help employees save for retirement: https://humaninterest.com/.

About Human Interest

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. For more information, please visit humaninterest.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements about the future development of Human Interest. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Human Interest assumes no liability for updating such statements in light of new information or future events.

Media Contact:
Maura Lafferty
Firebrand Communications for Human Interest
humaninterest@firebrand.marketing

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¹ Human Interest calculations using data from "Provider Rankings" included within the Plan Sponsor 2022 and 2023 Recordkeeping Surveys.

² Includes primary and secondary equity financings and an extension of the company’s credit facility.

³ Includes the company’s credit facility.

⁴ Human Interest FY 2024 Operating Plan as of February 2024.

⁵ Human Interest estimates as of June 2024 based on the size of the employee base covered by the payroll systems; primary refers to where Human Interest is a preferred provider.

⁶ Calculation based on an independent analysis of recordkeepers reporting to PLANSPONSOR as of 12/31/23 and/or the National Association of Plan Advisors as of 6/30/23. Human Interest estimates these sources cover over 98% of industry-wide 401(k) plans, verified against Department of Labor Form 5500 Pension Plan Bulletins data extracted on 7/26/23 using data as of 2021. 2023 estimates calculated by subtracting prior-year numbers from the total number of 401(k) plans self-reported by each recordkeeper in the current data release.

⁷ Human Interest FY 2024 Operating Plan as of February 2024.