Chris Eastwood: Co-founder at Penfold, a digital pension platform
Alumnus Chris Eastwood, co-founder and CEO of Penfold, on making pensions simpler and more accessible, using AI to improve outcomes for his business, and how his time at Deloitte gave him a strong grounding in how small and fast-growing companies operate.
Tell me about your career path and your motivations for founding Penfold.
“I started my career at Deloitte on the graduate scheme, training as an accountant in audit before moving into the M&A team. It was an incredibly valuable foundation – audit gave me a real understanding of how businesses operate, and M&A exposed me to financial services, including pension providers.
The idea for Penfold came from a conversation with a former Deloitte colleague, who’d just set up a workplace pension and found the experience frustrating, with very little employee engagement.
That really resonated with me. Pensions are one of the most important financial products people have, yet they’re confusing and overlooked. We felt we could build something simpler, more accessible, and more engaging. That conversation became Penfold.”
What have you found most rewarding about building and scaling your own business?
“The most rewarding part has been taking something from an idea to a real business that’s genuinely helping people.
The early days were a big shift – moving from a structured career path into something much more uncertain. We managed that by setting clear milestones, whether that was raising funding, building the product or acquiring our first customers.
Each step made it feel more tangible. The reality is that most people aren’t saving enough for retirement. Knowing that we’re building something that helps people engage earlier and take control of their future, even in small ways, is what makes it meaningful.”
Penfold is a 2025 Deloitte Tech Fast 50 winner. What are the key factors that have driven your growth?
“We started Penfold over a pint in 2018 and today we’re managing over £1 billion in assets for more than 120,000 customers. That growth has come from consistently focusing on removing friction, making pensions simpler, more accessible, and easier to act on.
A big part of that is owning our technology end-to-end. We built the whole infrastructure ourselves. It means we can move quickly, iterate in-house, and build a genuinely digital product rather than relying on legacy or third-party systems.
“Just as importantly, we’ve built a strong team around our mission to help everyone save for a comfortable retirement. We hire people we genuinely want to work with – people who care about the problem and bring that energy into what we do every day.”
How are you integrating AI into your business, and how is it changing the way you operate?
“It’s an incredibly exciting time to be running a tech company, as each week there’s more you can do with AI. The challenge is enabling everyone in the team to experiment in a secure way, given we’re a regulated business.
So we’re heavily investing in building AI capability internally. From improving our customer support responsiveness, to scaling our outreach, to automating key processes, aligning teams and so much more.
For us, it’s about using AI to move faster, operate at scale, and remove friction – while staying clear on its current limits and making sure it’s applied in a way that genuinely improves outcomes.”
How have you stayed connected to Deloitte and former colleagues?
“My main connection has been my Co-Founder at Penfold, Pete Hykin, who I first met at Deloitte in our audit days at the start of our careers.
Working across two teams at Deloitte also gave me a wide and varied network that I’ve been able to tap into for various questions that have come up when scaling the company - from VAT strategy to corporate finance advice.
Events like the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 awards were a great way for us to reconnect with Deloitte and former colleagues. It was fantastic for Penfold’s rapid growth to be recognised, but it was also a nice full circle moment for us, as Pete and I used to work with many firms on that list in our audit days.
Is there a particular learning from Deloitte that has impacted your career?
“The biggest thing I took from Deloitte was a deep understanding of how businesses operate at a fundamental level.
I worked in the entrepreneurial business team in audit days, which gave me a strong grounding in how smaller and fast-growth companies function internally, which has been super valuable as a founder. Moving into M&A then added a layer of strategic thinking, understanding value, transactions, and how businesses grow and evolve.
That combination has been incredibly useful in building Penfold. It gives you both the detail and the bigger picture, which is important when you’re making decisions across every part of the business.”
Read more Deloitte alumni profiles:
Aaron Westgate on teaching ICAEW qualifications and preparing trainee accountants for the world of work.
Ameila Ashton-Jones on growing a global sailing event in the most sustainable way possible
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