Uber is among the headline names taking part in a ABI project to find ways to make it easier for the self-employed to save for retirement.

Other businesses including Hermes will be working alongside financial giants such as Aviva, Barclays, and Zurich during a two day tech innovation event starting today in London.

The #SavingsTechSprint, being held by the Association of British Insurers, Department for Work and Pensions and HM Treasury, will assess how technology can help.

Also participating in the event at Aviva’s Digital Garage are fintech firms offering online money management tools – for example Squirrel, Trezeo and Portify.

Nearly 5 million people across Britain now work for themselves, a number that has increased by 50% since 2000, but only 19% of the self-employed are saving into a personal pension. There is no equivalent of auto-enrolment for the self-employed.

Teams will be set the challenge of developing practical solutions and interventions, focusing on the role technology and developments such as the Pensions Dashboard and Open Banking could play in helping the self-employed to build greater financial resilience for later life.

IPSE, the Association for Independent Professionals and the Self-employed, also has representatives taking part. Jonathan Lima-Matthews, senior policy adviser at IPSE, said: “Low pension uptake is a ticking time bomb and a major concern for IPSE, especially as our most recent survey showed 16% of self-employed people were not saving for later life at all.

“IPSE strongly believes that tech-based solutions can help spread the word about the benefits of saving for life, and will encourage new and improved products which suit the specific needs of the growing self-employed population.”

Emanuel Andjelic, one of the founders of Squirrel, set the firm up after his own struggles with managing money as someone self-employed. Emanuel said:

"Running your own business often means you're juggling so many balls that you end up neglecting the one that matters most, your financial future.

“As an entrepreneur I'm instinctively optimistic about the future success of my businesses, but that leaves me grossly underprepared if things don't go to plan."

Yvonne Braun, director of policy, long-term savings and protection, ABI, said: “Auto-enrolment has brought thousands more workers into pension saving and I’m excited to see what this week’s event can come up with to offer similar security to the self-employed.”

The full list of companies taking part in the #SavingsTechSprint are:

Aquila Heywood
Aviva
Barclays
Bravura
CBW Group
Clarence Services
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hermes
LV=
Moneysavingexpert.com
NEST Insight
Old Mutual Wealth
Parmenion
Portify
Prudential
Redington
SalaryFinance
Squirrel
Tata Consultancy Services
TISA
Trexeo
Uber
Zurich