Human Interest Aims for Public Listing

Human Interest, the 401(k) provider backed by BlackRock Inc., announced a $267 million funding round Wednesday that it says furthers the groundwork for a public stock market listing.

The 401(k) provider’s latest investment includes a Series E fundraising round led by private equity firms Marshall Wace and Baillie Gifford, bringing its total in primary and secondary financing to $700 million, according to the firm. BlackRock, whose founder, Larry Fink, has been discussing the need for a retirement rethink in the U.S., announced a minority investment in the San Francisco-based firm back in January 2023.

Human Interest has more than one million employees on its platform and passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. The firm is forecasting 70% revenue growth in 2024. It will look to become a public company “when the time is right,” says Rakesh Mahajan, chief revenue officer.

“This latest raise was designed to bring additional top-tier public equity investors onto the cap table,” the firm wrote in the announcement. “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.”

Along with the funding, Human Interest announced the hiring of executives with experience taking startups public.

Tripp Faix has joined as chief financial officer, a role he held previously at Mambu, a banking software provider, and Marqeta, a card issuing platform, where he “led” their $15 billion initial public offering in 2021. He will be replacing Chris Holmes, who was in the role a little over one year.

Jeff Buckley will join the finance team, reporting to Faix, as chief accounting officer; he held the same role at Palantir and Zynga, where he also was part of preparing the firms for public listings. He will be replacing Yangesh Patel, who was in the role almost two years.

Finally, Human Interest announced new board members Leslie Stretch and Roxanne Oulman. Both contributed to the IPOs of CallidusCloud and Medallia, Stretch as CEO and Oulman as CFO.

Human Interest has sold about 20% of all the new 401(k) plans in the U.S. and forecasts it will sell more than 25% in 2024, according to the firm.

“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,” said Jeff Schneble, Human Interest’s CEO, in a statement. “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.”