Our story

Two Lucys. One stubborn mission.

We met at Startups.co.uk two decades ago and have spent our careers building and marketing businesses, several of them in fintech and regulated finance. Between us we have taken maternity leave, gone self-employed, worked part-time, been made redundant and started again in our forties.

Every one of those moments had a financial decision buried in it. Not once did anyone hand us a plan. We looked for the service we needed, found it did not exist, and decided that was the business.

Building in your mid-forties is a different challenge to building at thirty. More wisdom, far less time. That is exactly the woman we are building for.

Lucy Smith, CEO & co-founder

Lucy Smith (left) and Lucy Wayment, co-founders of Welleness.

Our vision

A world where women are never the afterthought.

The advice gap has a gender. We are closing it, and this is what the other side of it looks like.

17 million women, properly advised

Every UK woman aged 25 to 60 able to get regulated advice that fits her life, not just the few with a big enough portfolio to be worth someone’s time.

Advice priced for real salaries

Help that costs a fraction of the traditional route, so sorting your money is a normal decision rather than a luxury purchase.

Built around how women actually earn

Career breaks, part-time years, several small pensions, self-employment. A plan that expects all of it instead of penalising you for it.

Someone there at the big moments

Maternity leave, going part-time, caring for parents, divorce, redundancy. Elle every day, and a real female adviser when it counts.

Our mission

Make quality financial advice affordable for every woman.

Elle does the work that makes advice expensive, the fact-find, the financial health assessment, the qualification, the endless admin, which cuts the cost of delivering regulated advice by around three times. A market the industry writes off as unprofitable suddenly works.

We are not building another app. We are building the operating infrastructure for women’s financial advice in the UK, and the advice is only ever given by qualified, regulated humans.

The team

The people behind Elle.

Building & scaling

Lucy Smith

CEO & co-founder

Almost 15 years at Crimson Publishing, rising to director before 30 and leading marketing across Startups.co.uk and its sister brands. Founding team at Readly UK and citrusHR, then founder of DigitalGrads, a graduate recruitment platform she built and ran for six years.

Fintech & product

Lucy Wayment

CMO & co-founder

Started as a business journalist at Startups.co.uk, then fifteen years across fintech brand, community and product, including Fluidly (acquired by OakNorth Bank), Lenkie, and FCA-regulated insurtech Stubben Edge, which has raised over £20m.

Regulated advice

Lizzie Goswamy

Lead IFA

Over a decade advising women on the decisions that matter most, protection, wealth creation, divorce planning and retirement. Currently advising with the digital-first network Fintuity. She believes financial planning is about people, not products.

AI in regulated finance

Ben Barton

CTO

Nearly 13 years at HSBC, most recently Director of Machine Learning Operations in the investment bank’s front office, working on complex regulated systems across FX, money markets and AI/ML. Before that, six years at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Advisory board

Help from across the industry.

We are deliberately surrounded by people who have already done the hard parts, regulated growth, consumer fintech at scale, and AI built responsibly.

Jasper Martens

CMO, PensionBee

Scaling a consumer pensions brand to millions of savers.

Mai Fenton

CMO, formerly Superscript

Growth and brand in FCA-regulated insurance.

Dr Julia Stamm

Founder, She Shapes AI

Responsible AI, and women’s place in building it.

More to follow

We’re adding advisers across advice, regulation and AI.

Our values

What keeps us honest.

No arseholes

Simple as that.

Equity

No one left behind.

Get shit done, smartly

Big ambition, pragmatic decisions. Move fast without breaking trust.

Honesty, even when it’s hard

Brave enough to say the true thing, not just the easy one.

Curious enough to lead, humble enough to ask

We ask the big questions before we assume the answers.

Respect, always

For each other, for different points of view, and for the rules that protect people’s money and livelihoods.

Enjoy the ride

We spend most of our lives at work, build something fun, and take pride in it.

Why now

The moment this becomes possible.

The economics finally work

AI removes the cost of the fact-find and the admin, so a woman with £15k to sort can be served properly, profitably and compliantly.

Women’s money is growing fast

Earnings, business ownership and inheritance are all shifting towards women, and the advice market has not caught up.

Regulation is opening the door

The FCA’s sandbox and Consumer Duty actively reward firms that close the advice gap with better, clearer, cheaper help.

We are building this with investors, advisers and champions who believe women deserve better.

If you back female-founded fintech, advise on regulated advice models, or simply know women who need this and want to shout about it, we would love to hear from you. Introductions, expertise, capital and cheerleading all count.

Get in touch: hello@welleness.ai