Tom Culver of Goodments wins inaugural EY WAMTech PitchFest
Tom Culver, CEO and Co-Founder of Goodments, has been named as winner of the inaugural EY WAMTech PitchFest for his innovative FinTech solution in response to the problem statement of how to simplify the process for financial advice within the wealth and asset management (WAM) industry. Culver took out the top award among stiff competition from the group of five short-listed finalists at a special event held in Sydney last night.
Supported by the Financial Services Council (FSC), the PitchFest called on FinTechs to help revolutionise the Australian WAM industry by designing innovative technology-based solutions to some of its biggest challenges, as identified via a survey of senior executives from the across the superannuation, funds management and life insurance sectors.
Culver’s winning pitch addressed the challenge of how the WAM industry could simplify the process for financial advice. In his pitch, Culver explained Goodments is a purpose driven business with a mission to create a more sustainable future. To achieve this ambitious social aim, Goodments is empowering a new generation of investor, making it easy for them to invest in good business by matching them to shares based on their Environmental, Social and Ethical values.
As the WAMTech PitchFest winner, Culver will attend the prestigious 2017 EY Strategic Growth Forum in Palm Springs, California in November. He will also receive six months of mentoring from an EY leader to help grow and develop his business.
EY Oceania Wealth and Asset Management Leader, Antoinette Elias says the judges were impressed by the ingenuity and originality of the Goodments solution.
“On behalf of EY, I would like to congratulate Tom Culver and all of our finalists for their innovative ideas, entrepreneurial spirit and inspiring pitches. We received some truly outstanding submissions which, while making the judges’ decision challenging, just goes to show the incredibility high calibre of FinTech ability in Australia.”
“We launched the WAMTech PitchFest to help spur technology innovation in what is still quite a traditional industry, and the ideas presented by our FinTech finalists to WAM industry leaders at last night’s event certainly opened up a lot of new possibilities for the future of the sector and highlighted the potential for greater collaboration in this space,” Elias says.
FSC CEO, Sally Loane says, “Congratulations to the winner, Tom Culver of Goodments, and everyone that took part. We have heard from so many talented people with innovative approaches to the wealth and asset management industry’s most pressing problems. I look forward to following the development of the pitches we’ve seen into real world solutions of the future.”
The four other exceptional FinTech entrepreneurs who were short-listed as finalists and competed at last night’s EY WAMTech PitchFest were:
- Chris Ridd, myprosperity
- Paul Feeney, Map My Plan
- Colin Weir, Moroku
- Eric Frost and Neil Smith, Simple KYC
All finalists will be considered for inclusion in the next EY Accelerating Entrepreneurs program.
