A quarter of the funded Australian startups that hired finance after their first round did it within 6 months, and a quarter took more than three years (n=91).
A quarter hired within 6 months of the round, and a quarter took more than three years
We dated every finance hire at 194 venture-backed Australian companies against their announced rounds. 91 of the 191 with a dated finance hire made their first one in the month of their first round or after it. This is how long they took.
- Within 3 months16 of 91 (18%)
- Within 6 months24 of 91 (26%)
- Within 12 months34 of 91 (37%)
- Within 18 months49 of 91 (54%)
- Within 24 months59 of 91 (65%)
- Within 36 months68 of 91 (75%)
View as a table
| First finance hire | Companies | Share of 91 |
|---|---|---|
| Within 3 months | 16 | 18% |
| Within 6 months | 24 | 26% |
| Within 12 months | 34 | 37% |
| Within 18 months | 49 | 54% |
| Within 24 months | 59 | 65% |
| Within 36 months | 68 | 75% |
37% (34 of 91) had someone in finance within a year of the round.2 So if you raised eight months ago and nobody owns finance yet,3 most of this group were in the same position at the same point.
If you already have a finance person, or your round has not landed yet, you are in the other half of the study: the before-or-after split is in when Australian startups make their first finance hire.
The later the round, the faster the clock: 21 months after a seed, 14 after a Series A, 5 after a Series B
The first round is not the only one that starts a clock. This table takes every company with nobody in finance when a round at each stage was announced, first round or not.
| Measure | Seed42 companies | Series A48 companies | Series B13 companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median wait | 21months | 14months | 5months |
| Middle half of waits | 7 to 43months | 3 to 29months | 2 to 9months |
| Hired within 6 months | 24%10 of 42 | 36%17 of 47 | 58%7 of 12 |
| Hired within 12 months | 29%12 of 42 | 46%21 of 46 | 75%9 of 12 |
| Hired within 24 months | 56%23 of 41 | 63%29 of 46 | 92%11 of 12 |
46% (21 of 46) of the companies with nobody in finance at their Series A had an internal hire a year later, and by the second year it was 63% (29 of 46). After a Series B the wait shrinks to a few months, as the board, the audit and the size of the cheque usually leave little room to keep finance on the founder’s laptop.
What starts the clock early is the work the round creates
What a round hands you is more people, more customers and more moving parts, and as I wrote in June, founder-led finance does not scale with any of them. The cracks show in the jobs a new board expects done every month. When someone properly owns finance, reporting gets clearer, board prep gets less chaotic, cash conversations get more accurate and hiring plans get tested before they become commitments. The question is whether your round has created that work yet.
Start the search now, or can it wait?
Five yes-or-no questions about the business since the round. One yes is enough.
- A monthly board pack that nobody on the team owns yet?
- More than a handful of hires in the plan for the next six months?
- The founder still answering every finance question?
- Outside help working more hours than it was engaged for?
- The next round planned within 18 months?
0 of 5 answered. Your answer appears here after the last one.
Not sure the round has started your clock? Send me the stage, what you raised and who does finance today, and I will tell you.
Get a read on my finance hireIf you are being told to hire now, or to wait
“The board wants a CFO now the money is in.” Most companies in the study did not start there. Of the 91 that hired after their first round, 51% (46) started with a head of finance or a financial controller and 19% (17) with a CFO. Before the hire is approved, ask the questions I see skipped most often: what problem this person is solving, what the hire does to runway, and whether you are hiring for today’s bottleneck or the structure you want in 18 months. Which seat to start with is in what Australian startups hire first in finance.
“It can wait until the next round.” At seed that is what most companies did: only 29% (12 of 42) hired within a year. Until then outside help carries it, and it is sized small. As I said on Honest Wealth Builders, early-stage startups often “don’t have the volume required for a full-time person”, and a fractional provider “might only be like five to 10 hours a week or sometimes even a month.” The month the work outgrows those hours is the month to start, not the next round. As I wrote about founder time, every hour you spend on finance decisions is an hour off the decisions only you can make.
When you do start, the round is part of the pitch. As I said on Behind The Story, at CFO level “the really good people, they’re not short of options”, and if they are taking equity “you really do need to believe in the story”. A plan you have just raised against is that story at its clearest.
If the board is asking about a CFO, I set out when to hire a CFO, and when a head of finance is the better first move.
How Myriota, Atomi and Okendo ran the clock: 6 months, 17 months and more than four years
Three companies with nobody in finance when their first round was announced. Titles and dates are from public profiles; rounds from the announcements linked.
Myriota
A financial controller six months after the Series A
- Business
- Satellite connectivity for IoT devices, founded 2015
- First finance hire
- Financial controller, Sep 2018
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 6 months after
- Next finance hire
- Finance manager, Mar 2022
- Now
- CFO since May 2026
Myriota had nobody in finance when its US$15.6 million Series A was announced in March 2018. A financial controller started six months later and held the seat for three years, through an A$28 million Series B.
The function was built underneath before it was built above: a finance manager in 2022, a group accountant and a second controller in 2023. The first CFO started in May 2026, eight years after the Series A and 17 months after an A$50 million round.
The first hire after a Series A is often the person who runs the month. The CFO seat can come years and two rounds later.
Atomi
A finance director 17 months after the Series A
- Business
- Online learning for high school students, founded 2013
- Rounds
- Series A, Dec 2021 (A$9M)
- First finance hire
- Finance director, May 2023
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 17 months after
- Next finance hire
- Financial controller, Oct 2023
- Now
- Finance director still in role (Sep 2026)
Atomi ran for eight years before it announced a round, and for 17 months after its A$9 million Series A without an internal finance hire. The first was senior: a finance director in May 2023, who is still in the role.
The team came after the leader. A financial controller joined five months later, then accountants in 2023 and 2024, and a second senior accountant in 2026.
Close to the Series A median, and senior first: the finance director arrived before anyone underneath, then built the team.
Okendo
More than four years from the seed to the first finance hire
- Business
- Customer reviews and marketing software for online retailers, founded 2016
- First finance hire
- Financial controller, Oct 2025
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 51 months after (40 after the Series A)
- Next finance hire
- None yet
- Now
- Financial controller still in role (Sep 2026)
Okendo raised a US$5.3 million seed in July 2021 and a US$26 million Series A eleven months later. Its first internal finance hire, a financial controller, started in October 2025: 51 months after the seed and 40 after the A.
In between, the usual arrangement at this stage is an outside accountant or a fractional CFO.3
In the long tail, 25% (23 of 91) took more than three years. When the first internal hire finally came, it was a controller to run the month.
By industry
This page covers all funded Australian startups together. Each industry has its own version, with its own figures and companies: tech startups, fintechs and deep tech companies. The other all-startup benchmarks: what to hire first and the second finance hire.
Common questions
How long after raising do Australian startups make their first finance hire?
Of the 191 funded Australian startups we tracked with a dated finance hire, 91 made their first finance hire in the month of their first announced round or later. The median wait was 18 months, and the middle half took between 6 and 36 months. 37% (34 of 91) hired within a year and 25% (23) took more than three years.
How long after a Series A do startups hire finance?
Among 48 companies we tracked with nobody in finance when their Series A was announced, the median was 14 months, with the middle half between 3 and 29. 36% (17 of 47) hired within 6 months, 46% (21 of 46) within 12 and 63% (29 of 46) within 24, counting only companies whose round is at least that old.
How long after a seed round do startups hire finance?
A median 21 months among 42 companies we tracked with nobody in finance when their seed round was announced, with the middle half between 7 and 43. 29% (12 of 42) hired within a year and 56% (23 of 41) within two.
What do startups hire first after a round?
Usually a head of finance or a financial controller. Of the 91 companies that made their first finance hire after their first round, 27% (25) started with a head of finance or finance director and 23% (21) with a financial controller. 19% (17) started with a CFO, 18% (16) with a finance manager and 13% (12) with an accountant or analyst.
Notes
- It does not show that hiring finance earlier or later causes a better outcome. It records the order things happened in. The only outcome test so far was run on the first 102 companies in the study, before it grew to 194. There, the share that raised again within 24 months of the first finance hire ran 55% when the hire came before any round (27 of 49), 47% at Series A (7 of 15) and 33% at Series B or later (2 of 6), and none of those differences could be told apart from chance (Fisher exact test, p=0.77 and p=0.41). Outcomes have not been collected for the full 194, and companies that hire early and companies that raise again are often the same well-organised companies, so no timing figure in this series is an argument for a timing.
- It is a survivor set. Every company announced a round and has at least one finance employee we could find, so the study describes companies that did build an internal finance function. In the 93 of the first 102 companies with a usable status there was not one insolvency, administration or wind-up. It cannot say what share of Australian startups have no finance lead at all.
- Outsourced and fractional finance is invisible. A virtual or fractional CFO supplied by a firm does not list the startup as an employer, so it never appears in public employment records. 16 of the 191 first hires we tracked (8%) were visibly fractional, part-time or interim, and that is a floor. Every “had no finance hire” figure means no internal hire we could find, among the companies we tracked.
- There is no headcount at the time of the hire. Only today’s headcount is public, so nothing here says “they hired a CFO at 40 staff”. The companies run from roughly 2 to 500 staff today.
- Titles are counted once. Each person is recorded at the earliest finance title they held at the company, so a controller promoted to CFO in the same business reads as a controller. Every “later added a CFO” figure is a floor.
- Rounds are dated by announcement. An announcement usually trails the close by weeks, rounds that were never announced are invisible, and grants and research funding are not in the round series. Round amounts are the least reliable field and no figure in this series rests on one. For 12 companies with names too common to search cleanly, past-staff coverage is a floor.
- It is not the market report. Story’s earlier market report on the first finance hire measured something different, the share of recently funded companies with a finance leader at each stage, so its figures and these do not compare directly.
The full method, including how rounds were double-checked and how same-named companies overseas were excluded, is in the study’s methodology section.
These guides set out how we see it, drawn from the searches we run and the finance leaders we work with. They are general information about the market, not financial, accounting or legal advice, and they are no substitute for advice on your own circumstances.