Innovative Business of the Year 2016

Start-up name: PensionBee
Founder: Romi Savova
Started in: 2015
Based in: London
Business description: Online platform which combines all of your pensions in one place

Just over a year-old, and already attracting over 100 customers a week, PensionBee has created such a buzz within its industry that the Startups Awards judges deemed it to be a deserving recipient of the Innovative Business of the Year award 2016.

An online pension manager, PensionBee helps users combine and manage all their pensions online into one plan which can be organised much like a bank account.

After submitting details on its website, PensionBee will automatically track down users’ old pensions and then put them into one of three plans managed by BlackRock or State Street.

Via its 24/7 online dashboard ‘The BeeHive’, customers can access a live pension balance, make online contributions, and use a smart calculator to help prepare for retirement.

Founded by fintech entrepreneur Romi Savova, who previously worked at Credit Benchmark, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the fintech start-up has its sights set on helping some 300,000 Brits control their retirement savings – a sign of the start-up’s ambition.

With new auto-enrolment rules, an ageing population and the UK pension market expected to reach £1 trillion by 2020, PensionBee is certainly in a great place to capitalise.

While the judges were won over by PensionBee, they were also taken by Playbrush – which turns children’s toothbrushes into game controllers –  and Oppo – the healthy ice cream brand – named highly-commended and commended respectively.