विवेक · विश्वास · नेतृत्व DISCERNMENT · TRUST · LEADERSHIP
Fractional CFO and strategic finance advisory for growth-stage and mid-market companies across the GCC, Africa and Asia. Built from 18+ years inside USD 1B+ enterprises, Big-4 audit, and regulated fintech.
WHO WE ARE?
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Senior finance leader with 18+ years across Big-4 audit, group CFO mandates and regulated fintech operations — sitting between founders, boards, lenders and regulators across four continents.
Finance, audit, consulting, CFO and business leadership.
Multi-country group finance and governance.
Debt, equity, trade finance and structured facilities.
Multi-currency liquidity and treasury exposure.
UAE, India, GCC, Africa, US, UK and Europe.
CEO, owner, board and investor-facing finance.
WHERE WE HAVE SERVED
GCC
UAE · Saudi Arabia · Oman
AFRICA
Nigeria · Kenya · Guinea · Senegal · Côte d'Ivoire · Zambia
ASIA
India · Singapore
US & UK
United States · United Kingdom
EUROPE
Germany · France · Spain · Bulgaria
INDUSTRIES WE HAVE LIVED
WHO · WHEN
Most clients arrive at one of two moments. Either the business has outgrown its finance function, or capital is now sitting on the other side of the table asking sharper questions.
The first conversation is a working session — not a sales pitch. We map the situation, the gap, and the next 90 days.
WHO WE WORK WITH
Eight client archetypesPreparing for institutional scale.
Multi-entity, multi-country governance.
Needing CFO-level financial control.
Debt, equity or structured facilities.
Preparing the business for diligence.
Buy-side red flags and quality of earnings.
Working-capital pressure and FX exposure.
Product to governance and regulator-grade.
WHEN CLIENTS CALL
Eight common triggersGrowth has outpaced the finance function.
Banks or investors are asking tougher questions.
Cash flow is tight despite profitable sales.
Receivables, inventory or working capital are stuck.
An owner wants to raise capital or sell a minority stake.
A CFO is needed, but not yet full-time.
Books need a clean-up before diligence.
Board packs and MIS are not decision-grade.
PRACTICE
Each pillar is a working anchor. Click a title to jump to detail or the M&A deep-dive below.
Engagements are scoped narrowly and run deep, as a practitioner inside your business, not an outside advisor presenting at it.
PILLAR 06 · DEEP DIVE
We support business owners, family groups and investors across buy-side, sell-side and minority stake transactions. Our work covers transaction readiness, valuation review, investor materials, data room preparation, financial due diligence coordination, commercial analysis, deal structuring, negotiation support and post-deal integration planning.
ENGAGEMENT MODEL
Priorities and pain points. No deck, no pitch.
Review finance maturity. Identify strategic gaps.
Tailored scope. Flexible retainer structure.
Embedded, CFO-level advisory inside the business.
Support recruiting and onboarding a permanent CFO.
SELECTED ENGAGEMENTS
Engagements are confidential. Identifiers and figures have been anonymised or rounded. Full case studies are available on request.
MULTI-COUNTRY CONGLOMERATE · GCC & AFRICA
CAPITAL STACK RESTRUCTURED
USD 20M annual recurring savings
Built a group-level finance architecture, consolidated reporting across 8 countries, and restructured a USD 300M financing stack — delivering USD 20M of annual recurring funding-cost savings.
DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES · AFRICA
SCALED IN 18 MONTHS
800K+ monthly transactions · 12K+ agents
Built the finance and compliance function from zero for a regulated African fintech. Scaled the platform to 1M+ users and 800K+ monthly transactions within 18 months, achieving full regulatory compliance.
GROWTH-STAGE BUSINESS · GCC
CAPITAL RAISE CLOSED
Investor reporting framework + data room
Designed an investor reporting framework, built a structured data room, and structured a successful institutional capital raise for a GCC growth-stage business.
LIVE PROTOTYPES
The prototypes below preview the working interface from two recent engagements. The main projects were delivered into production under client NDAs. Full architecture, commercial detail and outcomes are available on request.
SAAS · PRICING OPERATIONS
Live PROTOTYPE
Margin uplift via real-time pricing signal
Decision-grade pricing layer that synchronises competitor signals, cost movement and margin guardrails into a single operating view.
MARKETPLACE · REAL ESTATE
Live PROTOTYPE
Demand—supply matching with unit economics built in
A two-sided rental marketplace prototype with embedded unit-economics, conversion-funnel reporting and underwriting hooks.
CLIENT VOICES
Reflections from chairpersons, founders and managing directors the practice has supported. Client identifiers are protected by standing NDAs.
“Utkarsh built our finance and compliance function from zero, and stayed hands-on long after most consultants would have handed it off, without ever losing sight of the business's day-to-day realities.
“He turned a venture-pace product into an institutional-grade finance business, without slowing the pace, and re-earned the confidence of a lender group that had grown wary of the numbers.
“We finally got our unit economics right. The two operating tools he built didn't just match the earlier spreadsheet gaps, they gave the board language it hadn't had before.
INSIGHT
Why most growth companies don't have a finance problem — they have a leadership gap.
FEATURED
The real bottleneck in the finance seat isn't tooling or headcount, it's clarity on what the founder and the board actually need to see.
Read on LinkedIn →
CAPITAL STRATEGY
DIGITAL & AI
FINTECH
TREASURY
INVESTOR READINESS
GOVERNANCE
FP&A
TRANSITION
30–60 minutes.
The first conversation is a working session, not a sales call. Two ways to reach me — pick whichever is faster.
DIRECT LINES
OR BOOK A SLOT DIRECTLY
Best for a quick intro, a specific question, or to share a one-line situation before we meet.
+971 58 813 5452
WhatsApp UtkarshPick a confirmed slot. You'll get a calendar hold, a video link, and a short prep prompt — no deck required.
REPLIES TYPICALLY WITHIN ONE BUSINESS DAY · CONVERSATIONS ARE TREATED CONFIDENTIALLY. NDA AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.
Utkarsh Barasia
