{"id":43368,"date":"2023-10-20T15:28:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/sydney-startup-ignition-wealth-scores-1-million-investment-from-rich-lister-barry-lambert-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:28:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:04","slug":"sydney-startup-ignition-wealth-scores-1-million-investment-from-rich-lister-barry-lambert-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/sydney-startup-ignition-wealth-scores-1-million-investment-from-rich-lister-barry-lambert-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney startup Ignition Wealth scores $1 million investment from Rich Lister Barry Lambert – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Sydney-based robo-advice startup Ignition Wealth has scored a $1 million investment from financial planning pioneer and Rich Lister Barry Lambert as it looks to lead the way in digital financial advice.<\/p>\n

Ignition Wealth is a robo-advice platform that uses an algorithm to design and implement a dynamically updated portfolio for its users.<\/p>\n

Lambert, the chairman of cloud-based super administrator Class and founder of a large network of independent financial planners that was sold to the Commonwealth Bank for $373 million in 2011, has acquired a minority stake in the startup in exchange for the investment.<\/p>\n

The pitch<\/h3>\n

Ignition Wealth CEO Mark Fordree says he has known Lambert for many years and his pitch centred on the impact technology is having on financial advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven his interest in both the superannuation industry and technology it was a very natural conversation to talk about what Ignition was doing and how we could complement his existing businesses and have a major impact on the advice market generally,\u201d Fordree tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe recognises the step change technology is going to have in the advice market more generally.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarry absolutely understands that advice is really only available to the top 15% of the population now, so it stands to reason that you\u2019ve got a massively underserved market which can only be serviced by using technology combined with compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ignition Wealth initially launched in 2008, and earlier this year became the first digitally-led financial advisor to be granted an Australian licence.<\/p>\n

Early-stages of a big market<\/h3>\n

With the investment from Lambert, the fintech now has $4 million in funding that it will be using to rapidly expand and grow out its current offering, Fordree says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur working capital primarily goes to the ongoing development of our product offering, and also into marketing and infrastructure,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve more than doubled our workforce in the last 12 months and our growing profile will continue into the foreseeable future as we continue to build up our customer base.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the use of new technologies in financial planning is only just starting to hit the mainstream, and is set to be a booming market.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago the whole subject of digital advice was probably being discussed in 10% of boardrooms of financial institutions,\u201d Fordree says.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday there are probably 10% that aren\u2019t discussing it. We\u2019re fortunate to be plying our trade in the early stages of a major step change in the way people will access and deliver advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole pie<\/h3>\n

With this increased interest in the market there has also been an uptake in fintechs looking to capitalise on it, but Fordree says he isn\u2019t concerned about the increasingly competitive landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople tell me that there are 20, 30 or 40 robo-advice players popping out every other day but we\u2019re not too concerned about that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very natural evolution. Technology will be in every nook and cranny in financial institutions from this point on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ignition Wealth stands out from the pack because it offers a \u201cholistic approach\u201d that covers all aspects of a user\u2019s financial footprint, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a lot of people out there using their skills to automate a piece of the pie,\u201d Fordree says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that every entrepreneur needs to look at what their business model end game is. A lot of tech players we\u2019re seeing need to amalgamate and get together to form an end-to-end solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust having a piece of the pie doesn\u2019t necessarily deliver a business with longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sydney-based robo-advice startup Ignition Wealth has scored a $1 million investment from financial planning pioneer and Rich Lister Barry Lambert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}