Fractional CFO Services for Venture-Backed Scaleups

A fractional CFO is a senior finance leader engaged part-time or on a defined mandate — not as a full-time employee. For venture-backed scaleups, that typically means someone who owns the financial model, board pack, investor reporting, and capital strategy for a defined period (a raise, M&A process, CFO transition) without the $300K+ total comp and long-term commitment of an in-house hire.

Strategic finance leadership across FP&A, board and investor reporting, capital strategy, and deal leadership. Typical scope: three-statement model ownership, KPI dashboard governance, board pack and pre-read, quarterly investor updates, fundraising leadership, M&A process leadership, capital-markets calendar, and shareholder communications during material events. Not bookkeeping, not monthly close, not AR/AP — that's what your controller handles.

Different problems. A controller owns monthly close, AR/AP, and accounting accuracy — backward-looking. An FP&A consultant owns models, forecasts, and analysis for a defined project — horizontal. A fractional CFO owns strategic finance leadership across all of the above plus the capital agenda (fundraising, M&A, board) — vertical and senior. If your question is "how do I report this?" you need a controller. If it's "what should our Series B look like?" you need a CFO.

Outsourced FP&A is project-originated and horizontally scoped: financial model, forecast, scenario analysis, KPI build. It delivers on a specific finance output. A fractional CFO engagement adds vertical ownership — board and investor leadership, capital strategy, M&A/exit process leadership — and acts as senior finance leadership for a defined mandate. Waveup offers both: FP&A consulting for most clients, fractional CFO selectively when the scope justifies it.

We don't sell fractional CFO as a standalone SKU with hourly or monthly rates. CFO-level engagement is included in Waveup's $5k or $10k monthly retainer tiers — see our pricing page for the shape of the commercial terms. Every engagement begins with a diagnostic call to align scope, duration, and deliverables before commercial terms lock in. We don't bundle accounting or bookkeeping.

Typically: Series A through late growth, $5M–$50M ARR, institutional cap table, facing a high-stakes finance agenda (raise, M&A, CFO transition). If you're pre-revenue or pre-seed, a project-based financial model or pitch deck will serve you better. If you're at $50M+ ARR and committed to IPO track, you likely need an in-house CFO — we'll help you scope the hire instead of taking the engagement.

Mostly vocabulary. "Virtual CFO" emphasizes remote delivery; "fractional CFO" emphasizes part-time scope. In practice, most modern engagements are both. Waveup delivers remotely from London with in-person presence for board meetings and material capital events. The real question isn't virtual vs. fractional — it's whether the firm provides senior finance leadership with institutional memory, or a freelancer matched through a marketplace.

Yes — it's often why the engagement starts. CFO-grade discipline pre-raise means the model, the board pack, the data room, and the investor narrative all arrive in institutional form on Day 1. Teams we've supported close rounds ~70% faster than founder-led fundraising. Our 200+ warm VC intros (Antler, Bessemer, Creandum, Cherry, a16z among them) plug directly into a Waveup CFO engagement.

Project-originated: 3–6 months. Raise-led: 4–9 months, peaking around the capital event. Embedded mandate: 9–18 months, typically spanning a CFO transition, restructure, or exit process. Engagements are designed to wind down — we build the function for your full-time hire to step into, not to create a permanent dependency. The exit is the most valuable part of the engagement.

Yes — that's the sweet spot. Series A through Series D venture-backed scaleups with institutional cap tables and $5M–$50M ARR. Below Series A we route most clients to project-based FP&A or financial modeling. Above $50M ARR and IPO-bound, we help scope the in-house CFO hire rather than taking the engagement.

SaaS is one of our core ICPs along with fintech, marketplace, D2C, and AI. We speak ARR, MRR, net revenue retention, burn multiple, CAC payback, magic number, rule of 40 — the KPIs SaaS boards and investors actually ask about. Our SaaS clients have raised from Antler, Bessemer, Creandum, Cherry, and a16z, partly because SaaS-native finance discipline was baked into the CFO engagement.

Yes — deal leadership is core CFO scope. Sell-side process leadership, buy-side acquisition diligence, LOI negotiation, diligence room build-out, down-round structuring, SAFE-to-preferred conversions. We coordinate with your bankers, lawyers, and the buyer's CFO team. See our M&A advisory service for the standalone deal workstream; fractional CFO adds continuous finance leadership across the whole process.

We help you hire them. Our engagements are designed to wind down — we build the finance function, the cadence, the model, and the board materials that a full-time CFO steps into on Day 1 rather than rebuilds from scratch. We scope the role, interview finalists with you, and transition the rhythm. We've done this enough times to know the exit is the most valuable part of the engagement.

Because most of our target clients already have a bookkeeper or controller. Bundling forces a switch you don't need. Our focus is strategic finance — fundraising, model, board, capital strategy — not monthly close. If you need bookkeeping bundled with CFO services at early stage, Graphite or Burkland may fit better. Our wedge is for venture-backed companies where the accounting is already handled.