Interim Chief Financial Officer — Fintech Runway Reset

The mandate

A lead investor withdrew days before signing after diligence challenged revenue recognition and customer-acquisition payback, and the CFO then resigned. The company has adequate cash for several months, but its board cannot choose a defensible bridge size or cost plan from the current management information.

The interim should join within two weeks for eight months, taking the company through cash reset, bridge financing and the next audited close. A permanent CFO search starts after the revised operating plan is approved, with a potential six-week extension if the bridge closing and succession overlap.

Handover is achieved when at least eighteen months of board-stressed runway is funded, monthly revenue and cash reconcile to source systems, cohort economics drive approved spend gates, the audit closes without a material adjustment, and the successor has run the first investor update.

The interim can stop discretionary spend, renegotiate contracts, set financial controls and transact within a ₹10 crore treasury delegation. Headcount reduction above 10%, bridge terms affecting control, debt above ₹75 crore, material revenue-policy changes and permanent executive appointments require the board.

Product repositioning, credit policy and a sale process are excluded. The CFO will quantify each option but will not own customer proposition, underwriting or shareholder negotiations beyond funding economics.

Why this seat is open

The failed raise exposed disagreement between growth metrics and recognised financial performance. Finance deputies built parts of the challenged reporting and are not positioned to reset investor confidence alone. The board needs an interim CFO who can establish facts quickly and fund a realistic plan.

What you will own

• Build a daily cash and thirteen-week runway model reconciled to bank balances, committed receipts, payroll and supplier obligations.
• Decide immediate spend holds by cash consequence, customer obligation and value evidence within board workforce limits.
• Reconstruct recognised revenue, deferred balances and unit economics from contract and transaction-level sources.
• Present a base, downside and survival operating plan with explicit triggers for further cost or capital action.
• Negotiate bridge debt or equity economics and put control, dilution, covenant and runway consequences before the board.
• Close the next audit with a retained judgement file for revenue, credit loss, capitalised development and related parties.
• Transfer the funded plan, investor commitments, accounting positions, finance talent review and ninety-day decisions to the successor.

Candidate qualifications

• Served as CFO or finance director in venture-backed fintech, payments, SaaS or another transaction-led digital company.
• Raised bridge or emergency capital after a delayed or failed institutional funding round.
• Rebuilt revenue recognition and cohort economics from granular contracts and transaction data.
• Led cost actions that protected regulatory and customer obligations while extending runway materially.
• Managed investors, auditors and lenders through a confidence reset with concise, reconcilable reporting.
• Understands Indian fintech controls, expected credit loss where relevant and venture financing terms.

Non-negotiables

• Can work full-time from Bengaluru within fourteen days.
• No current advisory, investment or employment relationship with existing or declined investors.
• Will disclose any prior audit qualification or restatement under their authority.
• Must be prepared to recommend deeper cost action if the bridge does not close.

1. 49 words maximum. State your availability and any investor relationship requiring disclosure.
2. 49 words maximum. Quantify runway you added after a financing setback and the two largest actions that created it.
3. 49 words maximum. Which source records would you reconcile before accepting a fintech revenue dashboard?