Kota Launches Instant Auto-Enrolment Pension Platform as 1 in 4 Employers Remain Unprepared

Kota, the Irish-founded employee benefits platform, has launched the country’s first Instant Auto Enrolment Solution following its €12.6 million Series A investment in May. Their purpose-built solution gets Irish employers Auto Enrolment ready in just a few clicks. With 1 in 4 businesses unprepared and statutory contributions set to begin on 1 January  2026, employers have just five months to get ready. Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary is urging businesses to “act now”, describing auto-enrolment as “the biggest transformation of pension policy in the history of the State.”

Kota’s new offering enables HR and finance teams to implement a compliant occupational pension with Irish Life within minutes. Organisations can sync employee data, set minimum contributions, and have eligible hires automatically enrolled, while staff get an easy-to-use platform to view and manage their savings.

“We’ve spent thousands of hours working alongside Irish employers as they prepare for the upcoming changes” said Trevor Gardiner (QFA,RPA), Head of Benefits at Kota. “Auto Enrolment has been a really positive catalyst, prompting Irish employers to talk seriously about retirement benefits. But from our conversations, it’s clear the State scheme won’t work for everyone. That’s why we’ve built a solution for companies that want more control over employee experience, cost, and compliance, without the complexity.”

While a positive step in improving retirement readiness, The Government’s ‘My Future Fund’ offers limited flexibility, increases administrative burdens on employers and includes strict limits that many companies and higher earning staff find unattractive, such as:

No Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVCs) and savings locked up until the National Retirement Age of 66.

Fixed contribution rates with no room for employer discretion.

€80k salary cap on contributions, and reduced tax relief for those taxed at 40%.

A Government managed portal that gives employers no control over their employees’ experience.

However, choosing an Occupational Pension instead of Auto Enrolment presents the challenge of ensuring the scheme is correctly set up to qualify for full exemption. Failure to do so can result in businesses running two pension schemes simultaneously, an outcome both the Government and major pension providers agree causes unnecessary complexity and administrative burden. Yet many employers are receiving limited clarity or practical guidance from their existing brokers, leaving them uncertain about the right course of action and often unaware of these nuances.

Kota’s purpose-built technology solves this by automatically enrolling employees onto the employers’ occupational pension as soon as they’re added to their HR System, eliminating the manual work and, thereby, the potential for errors and delays typically involved. Already trusted by Remote.com and hundreds of EU scale-ups including Tines, Protex AI, &Open and Car Wow, Kota delivers a future-ready, robust approach to workplace pensions. This includes:

Seamless setup: Sync HRIS & payroll to launch an occupational pension with Irish Life in a few clicks.

Always compliant: Synced employee data and eligibility rules ensuring everyone stays covered by the company’s Occupational Scheme.

Employee engagement & understanding: Consumer-grade app where employees can access, understand and make in-app changes to their savings for retirement.

Regulated & secure: Kota holds a Central Bank of Ireland intermediary licence and integrates directly with Irish Life for real-time enrolments and accurate reporting.

Proven at scale: Powers benefits for Remote.com and hundreds of EU scale ups.

“Thousands of Irish employers are telling us that auto enrolment is a growing concern, with little guidance from traditional brokers,” added Luke Mackey, Co Founder & CEO of Kota. “Our goal is to make compliance effortless in just a few clicks, while giving employees the transparent, mobile first experience they expect. We believe this is the easiest path for companies that want to do right by their employees without the unpredictable workload that often accompanies compliance.”

To help employers prepare for the rollout of Auto Enrolment in January, Kota is launching a nation-wide Roadshow.

Its six week tour kicks off in Dublin on 2 September and will travel to 13 locations across Ireland – Cork, Kildare, Limerick, Kilkenny, Galway, Kerry, Clare, Westmeath, Roscommon, Louth before returning to Dublin for a final session on 23 October. In total, Kota will host 20 breakfast and lunch events in an impressive list of venues including Carton House, Drumoland Castle and Hayfield Manor where local employers can come together to discuss how they’re preparing in an open forum. The Kota team will be on hand to provide personalised readiness checks and practical next steps, ensuring employers are fully prepared and can avoid any last minute headaches before the January 1st deadline.

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