Founded in October 2019, Manifest is on a mission to ensure employee retirement funds are protected at the ‘riskiest time of their lives’. The startup counts Brose, Utah Retirement System, and Northwestern Mutual among its clients.

To date, Chicago-based Manifest has generated $3.1 million in funding from investors including AARP, JP Morgan’s FinLab, University of Chicago, and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.

Manifest was also named winner of the UNLEASH Startup 2024 award at UNLEASH America.

John Brazier: What does winning the UNLEASH Startup 2024 Award mean for MANIFEST?

Anuraag Tripathi: “Manifest is the first and only plan-to-plan consolidation tool ever in the market, so winning the UNLEASH Startup Award means a lot to us.

“It will help us connect to the audience that we’re reaching out to, and in getting our message out there.

“We are super grateful for the opportunity to present our story to a broader audience.”

JB: What is your USP? What makes your proposition special?

AT: Manifest literally digitizes 401K rollovers. The number of people searching for jobs is on the rise; we make the process of keeping 401(K)’s invested and growing during that job change easy.

Something that is unique about our solution is that we are free for employers and free for participants. The 401(k) provider is the one that pays for our solution and the data that we get from them also means there is no integration, so employers can go live and provide this benefit to their participants in less than 30 minutes.

JB: How are you trying to change the world?

AT: Retirement is becoming more and more important. At the risk of sounding a little bit morbid, there are two things in life that you can’t avoid – death and taxes, and retirement makes both of those things easier.

Manifest helps participants at the riskiest time in their careers, when they’re switching jobs, to make sure we protect those savings and keep their hard-earned nest egg with them, so they have enough when time for retirement comes around.

JB: What is your key message to HR leaders?

AT: I know HR leaders are facing a lot of pressure today. There’s a changing economy, workers from different demographics entering the workforce as well.

Something that is really important is there’s equally been a shift in tools and help provided by different vendors; now’s the best time to choose the best vendor team and other solutions to help support where the future is going.

JB: What are the next strategic goals for MANIFEST?

AT: In the next 12 months Manifesto is on track to consolidate about $4 billion worth of assets and we have that opportunity, thanks to our employer clients.

So through our employer clients we have access to about 250,000 participants and they’re the ones that actually created that opportunity for us to integrate with the Fidelity’s, Vanguards, T. Rowe Prices of the world where 70% of our transfers are automated today.

Through those integrations, we’re only just getting started in digitizing transfers for everyone.

UNLEASH Startup | Spotlight is a monthly Editorial interview series where we speak to and profile the best and brightest technology startups the HR world has to offer. Want to feature in the series? Get in touch with john@unleash.ai to find out more.