Meet the man behind a hi-tech Jamberoo IT startup employing 35 people in three of the towns old buildings

FinoComp was born four years ago when Ray Tubman decided he wanted to keep living and working in Jamberoo and realised its great lifestyle would provide something different and attractive when targeting and enticing the best of the best.

From the small township in a pristine rural setting Mr Tubman has established a successful startup that services six major clients in the United Kingdom.

FinoComp is a software development company with an innovative approach in providing a range of microservices for the wealth management industry. It has 40 staff overall including five in London and is about to open a Wollongong office.

FinoComp has been nominated in WealthTech's 100 list for the world's most innovative WealthTech companies.

"That staggered me. I didn't even know we were being considered. Top 100 is just fabulous kudos. The work we are doing is really getting acknowledged. In the UK our brand is really getting known," Mr Tubman said.

FinoComp is also in the running for some other major awards which will come as no surprise to people who know the pedigree of its chief executive officer.

Mr Tubman was co-founder of Wollongong based wealth management software solutions company InfoComp up until it was sold to GBST in 2007.

InfoComp was named Illawarra Business of the Year and made BRW's list of the fastest growing 100 companies in Australia in 1999.

Was listed among Deloitte Technology's Fast 50 technology companies in 2001 and won a Telstra NSW Business in 2005.

Mr Tubman remained with GBST for eight years but eventually decided it was time to do something new himself in Jamberoo. FinoComp was born in 2015.

The name pays homage in part to the former business he co-owned at 63 Market St.

But now FinoComp is achieving many goals in its own right. So much so Mr Tubman is predicting dramatic growth in the next year that is likely to result in the addition of 20 to 25 more staff.

"Although the name bears similarities what we are doing is really quite different. We are about to go through a growth phase where we expect to double our size in the next 12 months".

While FinoComp may have flown under the radar locally but the business is well known in wealth management circles in the UK.

Mr Tubman's office is in an old building next to Jamberoo Hotel that previously enjoyed lives as a restaurant, antique store, coffee shop and art gallery. It was the original building FinoComp occupied.

"Software is an art form in its own right so the though of starting in an art gallery is something that was quite interesting for me".

A short distance along Allowrie St other staff work in a building that started life as the regional grocery store. The state heritage listed church is a meeting, conference and workshop facility.

"When we bring clients here they are amazed by it," Mr Tubman said.

FinoComp's 35 strong Illawarra workforce are all local people and mostly UOW graduates. Five members of the team are from the Jamberoo and Kiama area.

"This area saw the first roll out of the NBN. And there is a great lifestyle here," Mr Tubman said.

At lunchtime FinoComp team members can often be found in the park, where a fitness trainer comes in twice a week to run them through an exercise program.

They also frequent many of the local businesses such as the pub, club, supermarket, pool and cafe.

Read more: