Sync Savings Secures Funding to Tackle UK’s Savings Gap
The UK’s first dedicated payroll savings platform, Sync Savings, has secured a new round of funding to advance its mission of making regular saving as effortless as spending.
The investment comes from a group of prominent women in the UK financial services sector, including Sarah Williams-Gardener OBE, Chair of FinTech Wales, Angels Invest Wales, Rupa Popat, Founder and Managing Partner of Arāya Ventures, and Fiona Howarth, CEO and Founder of Octopus Electric Vehicles.
Sync Savings: Bridging the UK’s Savings Gap
Founded in 2023 by former Monzo executives Joss Tasker and Alex Fox, Sync aims to address the UK’s savings gap. The founders recognized that while the financial system excels at facilitating spending, it falls short in helping individuals build accessible savings.
Sync’s payroll savings technology integrates with workplace benefits or payroll platforms, enabling employees to open high-interest savings accounts and automatically set aside an agreed amount each payday. This approach eliminates the need for manual transfers or standing orders.
Once set up, employees can change their contributions or access their savings, ensuring flexibility alongside automation. Sync has already helped thousands of employees save regularly and is growing through partnerships with employers and payroll providers, including IRIS Software Group and the NHS.
In the past six months, savings deposits via Sync have grown by an average of 75% month-on-month, with user numbers increasing by 60% over the same period.
Sync is also a founding member of the National Coalition for Workplace Savings, established as part of the government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy. The coalition aims to increase the adoption of workplace savings schemes, believing that payroll can be a powerful tool for financial wellbeing, much like auto-enrolment has normalized pension saving.
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Automating Savings, Reducing Barriers
Joss Tasker, Sync’s Founder and CEO, highlights the contrast between the ease of getting into debt and the complexity of opening a regular savings account. “Sync is changing that,” she said. “We help people save automatically, little and often through the workplace systems they already use.”
Tasker emphasizes that the savings gap is particularly stark for women, and the barriers aren’t simply about financial literacy or willpower. According to Money.co.uk data, women hold 34% less in savings than men. This disparity extends into retirement, with the gender pensions gap reaching 19 years, meaning women have to work 19 extra years for pension parity.
Sync aims to make saving easy by offering access to high-interest cash savings without complications. Tasker explains, “We want to make saving easy; we want to give people access to high-interest cash savings without the complications, offering people a financial buffer before they need one and a route to wealth building over time.”
The new funding will enable Sync to accelerate its growth in the UK, expand into European markets, and further develop its technology and financial services partnerships.
Investors are optimistic about Sync’s potential. Sarah Williams-Gardener believes Sync’s payroll integration is a “simple but powerful idea” that can significantly enhance financial resilience and inclusion. Tom Preene of Angels Invest Wales highlights Sync’s innovative proposition and strong team.
Rupa Popat, Founder and Managing Partner of Arāya Ventures, sees Sync as a way to make financial resilience automatic and accessible, embedding it into everyday systems like payroll. She said, “Financial resilience shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for those who already have savings habits and safety nets. It should be built into the everyday systems people already trust, like payroll. Sync is making long-term financial security automatic rather than aspirational, embedding better financial outcomes into the way people already live and work. We believe this has the potential to become an important piece of financial infrastructure, with significant impact at scale. We’re proud to back Joss, Alex and the Sync team as they build the category.”
