February 12, 2025

Building a Scalable Finance Function for a High-Growth AI Start-Up

Client Profile

Develop a solid financial infrastructure that enhances efficiency in managing funds, ensures adherence to all legal and regulatory requirements, and strengthens the organization's ability to secure investments and funding for growth.

Client
[Confidential]
Industry
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Client's Goals

Establish a strong finance function, streamline financial operations, ensure compliance, and support fundraising efforts.

The Challenges

Building a Finance Function from Scratch – The start-up lacked structured financial processes and needed scalable systems.

Efficient Financial Management – Required a streamlined approach for bookkeeping, payroll, treasury, and financial reporting.

Faster Month-End Close – Needed a faster book closure process to provide timely financial insights.

Investor-Ready Financials – Required well-prepared board decks and financial reports for investor pitch and fundraising efforts.

Operational Visibility – Needed tools to manage various SaaS metrics, cash flows, track unit economics and project level profitability, stock options, and procurement efficiently.

The Results

We built a robust finance function that streamlined operations, reduced book closure to three business days, and provided comprehensive financial reports and dashboards by business day five. Our enhancements, including deploying an ERP solution, and various tools for effective FP&A management, time tracking, stock option management, and procurement automation, improved efficiency and visibility. During fundraising, we helped prepare a compelling financial package and facilitated the financial due diligence, leading to USD 100million in successful funding in four rounds, from multiple marque investors.

  • Reduced book closure timeline to 3 business days.
  • Enabled comprehensive financial dashboards by business day 5.
  • Implemented ERP, time tracking, stock option, and procurement systems for better visibility.
  • Successfully supported fundraising, securing USD 100 million from multiple investors.