Mesh, CashIO, Meshly.ai, and VirtuSpect were named winners in the Core Finance Tech Stack, Business Intelligence and Automation, Productivity Tools, and Disruptive Platforms and Tools categories, respectively, in the 2025 CFO Leadership Finance and Accounting Technology Expo Pitch Stage Competition.
“Let's be honest,” said contest host Mary McKenna, a former technology CFO and angel investor. “Startups are the people who start things in the economy. If you don't support them, big companies won't exist.”
Startups from around the world applied to pitch their products and services to the expo's audience of venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and potential customers such as CFOs, VPs of Finance, and other financial professionals. Sixteen finalists were selected and presented to a panel of judges at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.
“Winning the FATE pitch competition was one of the biggest highlights of this year for Mesh,” said Erin Kim, co-founder and CEO of Mesh, a fully AI-native bookkeeping service. “Having the opportunity to present to and connect with CFOs around the world to solve month-end closings is truly a gift for a young startup like ours.”
“We are extremely honored to receive this award,” said Tim Harris, CEO and co-founder of VirtuSpect, a software platform that helps automate and centralize inspection processes. “This confirms that our vision and execution are aligned with the direction of the market.”
Artificial intelligence was a hot topic throughout the expo. All four winners have technology involved in some aspect of the product. VirtuSpect uses AI to flag discrepancies during inspections and provides image verification and measurements to maintain data integrity and compliance.
A “revenue smoke detector,” Meshly builds a platform that keeps GTM systems like CRM, contracts, and billing in sync so teams don't make decisions based on discordant data. AI is one that flags potentially dangerous patterns. CashIO promises to help accounting firms and fractional CFOs scale with AI. It is a CAS-enabled platform that covers everything from period end to forecast and advisory output.
On the horizon, Kim sees “on board.”[ing] We are bringing a more innovative accounting team to our vendor accrual agents and expanding our product suite to cover underserved month-end tasks such as prepaid expenses. ”
Although currently focused on companies in highly regulated industries such as banks and insurance companies, Harris is “expanding beyond financial services into new areas where proving compliance efficiently is critical.”
“This was our first pitch competition and we won!” said Alex Ruddock, Founder and CEO of CashIO. “We believe this is a strong signal that we are on the right track. Next, we are focused on onboarding new companies and launching a pre-seed round in January 2020.”
