Making Pensions Work the Way They Should

The story behind Nexum Pensions

When João Cabral left his role at Octopus Money to start Nexum Pensions, he did so because he saw a problem that real people experience that couldn’t be solved from the inside.

Working as a product manager, João spent his days improving how people engage with their pensions. But one issue kept reappearing: every time someone changed jobs, they were automatically enrolled into a new pension scheme. It meant that over the course of a career, many people ended up with several small pots scattered across different providers, hard to track, harder to manage, and expensive to consolidate. “I realised that the system wasn’t designed to follow the person,” João explains. “You can tell your employer which bank account to pay your salary into, but not which pension to pay your contributions into. That didn’t make sense.” 

From that simple observation came a powerful idea, that pension contributions should follow the member, not the job.

Solving a familiar problem

Auto-enrolment has been one of the UK’s greatest success stories in encouraging people to save for retirement. Yet it has created a new challenge: multiple pension pots, each with different logins, investment strategies, and fees. Transfers are slow, often taking months, and many savers lose track of where their money is.

Nexum’s approach is to make things simpler for everyone involved. Employers continue to run payroll as usual, while Nexum securely routes contributions to each employee’s chosen pension provider. Pension providers, in turn, receive cleaner data and faster payments, with more opportunities to retain and re-engage members.

The result is a smoother, more connected pension ecosystem. Members keep growing the same pot wherever they work, improving their long-term investment outcomes. Employers save time and reduce admin. Providers gain continuity and active members.

Building something that lasts

João identified the problem and he built the first version of the platform himself. Drawing on his experience with pension and payroll systems, he created the technical foundations that now power Nexum’s operations. Early pilots ran within the Octopus group, testing and refining how contributions could be routed accurately and efficiently across multiple schemes.

That early success became the basis for Nexum’s next stage of growth. Today, the company works with both pension providers and employers, helping them deliver a better experience to members without adding complexity.

“We want to be the UK Power Networks of pensions,” João says. “You don’t see them, but they power everything behind the scenes. That’s what we want to be for pension payments, the invisible layer that makes it all work.”

A culture built on transparency and invention

As Nexum grows, João is focused on building a team that values openness, direct communication, and creativity. “I like to move information fast,” he says. “We’re solving something that people have just accepted as the status quo. When you tell them the idea, they say, ‘Why hasn’t anyone done that before?’ That’s the kind of energy we want in the team, people who enjoy inventing better ways to do things.”

Nexum operates remotely, with quarterly in-person sessions to plan and align. It’s a setup that fits the company’s agile, problem-solving mindset.

What’s next

The next 12 months are about scale. Nexum is expanding its partnerships with pension providers, onboarding more employers, and helping more members take control of their pensions without the friction of transfers.

“Our goal is simple,” João says. “We want to make pensions work the way they should, one single pot, one pensions provider, wherever you work.”

About Nexum Pensions

With Nexum Pensions, employees can receive workplace contributions into their chosen pension, not just the company default. This reduces duplication, consolidates savings, and supports better financial outcomes. For employers, it is a simple, compliant solution that enhances benefits, improves engagement, and adds measurable value with minimal effort.