28% (5 of 18) of Australian fintechs that raised before hiring finance made the hire within a year; after a Series A, 67% (8 of 12) did within two.
Fintechs that raised first took a median 21 months to hire finance, and only 28% did it within a year
We dated every finance hire at 194 venture-backed Australian companies against their announced rounds. 40 of them are fintechs, and 45% (18) of those made their first finance hire in the month of their first round or after it. This is how long they took, against every startup in the study.
- Fintech (18 companies)
- All startups (91 companies)
- Within 3 months11%18%
- Within 6 months17%26%
- Within 12 months28%37%
- Within 18 months50%54%
- Within 24 months56%65%
- Within 36 months83%75%
View as a table
| First finance hire | Fintech (18) | All startups (91) |
|---|---|---|
| Within 3 months | 2 (11%) | 16 (18%) |
| Within 6 months | 3 (17%) | 24 (26%) |
| Within 12 months | 5 (28%) | 34 (37%) |
| Within 18 months | 9 (50%) | 49 (54%) |
| Within 24 months | 10 (56%) | 59 (65%) |
| Within 36 months | 15 (83%) | 68 (75%) |
28% (5 of 18) of these fintechs had someone in finance within a year of the round.2 So if you raised eight months ago and nobody owns finance yet, most fintechs that raised first were in the same place. The second and third years are where fintech catches up. 56% (10 of 18) hired between month 13 and month 36, and only 17% (3) went past three years, against 25% of all startups.
Those companies did not go without finance while they waited; the chart counts the first internal hire.3 If you already have a finance person, the before-or-after split is in when fintechs hire finance, before or after the raise.
If money moves through your product, the clock runs faster
Fintech is not one kind of business. A lender or a payments company carries customer money; a wealth app or software sold to banks does not. As I said on Celia’s Corner, with a payments or lending business “there’s a lot of regulation around that”, and “you might need a certain level of liquidity for the loans that you’re paying out.” Finance is part of the product from the first customer.
The data shows it twice. Most lenders and payments fintechs never started the clock: 63% (15 of 24) of those we tracked had someone in finance before their first round. Of the 9 that raised first, 4 hired within a year, against 1 of the 9 other fintechs that raised first. By two years the groups were level at 5 of 9 each. Which means for a lender or a payments company the first year is the window, and the rest of fintech most often hired in the second year.8
Why money moving through the product brings the CFO seat forward, and what a licence adds to the job, is in when a fintech needs its first CFO.
After a Series A, fintechs hired within six months or in year two; after a seed, they waited longest of all
The first round is not the only one that starts a clock. This table takes every fintech with nobody in finance when a round at each stage was announced, first round or not.
| Measure | Seed8 companies | Series A12 companies | Series B4 companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median wait | 31months | 15months | 5months |
| Middle half of waits | 17 to 44months | 2 to 26months | 4 to 6months |
| Hired within 6 months | 1 of 8companies | 33%4 of 12 | 3 of 4companies |
| Hired within 12 months | 1 of 8companies | 33%4 of 12 | 4 of 4companies |
| Hired within 24 months | 3 of 8companies | 67%8 of 12 | 4 of 4companies |
After a Series A, 33% (4 of 12) hired within 6 months and the same 33% within 12: nobody hired in months 7 to 12. A fintech that did not hire straight after its A usually hired in the second year, and by two years 67% (8 of 12) had. That is slower than the market: across all startups, 46% (21 of 46) hired within a year of a Series A.
After a seed the wait was the longest of any group we measured: a median 31 months, with 1 of 8 hiring inside a year. At that stage an outside accountant and a part-time adviser usually carry the load. After a Series B, all 4 hired within a year.
What should start the search is the work the round creates
The round is what tests the arrangement you raised on. In the month after the money lands, the rough edges get noticed: a forecast that is not detailed enough for the board you now report to, a reporting rhythm set for a business half the size, a hiring plan that is ambitious without being costed. For a lender, add the funder who reads your loan book every month.
Waiting has a cost that does not show on the calendar. Moving on from founder-led finance later than you should means slower decisions, a founder spending time on work they should not own, and messier reporting, and the reporting is only the visible part.
Start the search now, or can it wait?
Five yes-or-no questions about your fintech since the round. One yes is enough.
- Does money move through the product: loans you fund, payments you process or customer funds you hold?
- A funding line, warehouse facility or funder that expects regular reporting?
- A monthly board pack the founder still writes?
- A fractional CFO or outside accountant working well past the hours they were 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 the product does with money 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
“Our investors want a CFO now we have raised.” Few fintechs started there. Of the 18 that hired after their first round, 11% (2) started with a CFO, against 28% (5) with a head of finance or finance director, 28% (5) with a controller and 22% (4) with a finance manager. The mistake I see most often at Series A is a founder who closes the round and goes straight looking for a CFO. Six months in, that person is bored because the work is not there yet, they leave inside a year, and the founder runs the search twice. A lender with a funder to report to is the exception, and the fintech CFO guide sets out when the CFO seat is real.
“Our fractional CFO will carry us.” For a while. As I told Honest Wealth Builders, “the fractional relationship with a provider might only be 18 to 24 months”, and at the end of it the business outgrows them. The fintech median of 21 months sits inside that range. Plan the handover. As I wrote after introducing one founder to a fractional CFO, a founder who needs fractional help today may be building something that needs a full-time hire in 18 months.
How RealtyAssist, Azupay and Driva ran the clock: 11, 27 and 42 months
Three fintechs with nobody in finance when their first round was announced, and all three move or arrange money. Titles and dates are from public profiles; rounds from the announcements linked.
RealtyAssist
A CFO 11 months after a round that came with a $20M warehouse facility
- Business
- Pay-later finance for property sellers' sale costs, founded 2020
- Rounds
- Nov 2021 ($4M equity and a $20M warehouse facility); Sep 2023 ($1.5M)
- First finance hire
- CFO, Oct 2022 to Jan 2024
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 11 months after
- Next finance hire
- Finance business partner, Dec 2022
- Now
- Senior financial accountant in role (Sep 2026)
RealtyAssist funds the costs of selling a home, such as marketing, until the sale settles. Its first announced round in November 2021 was $4 million of equity alongside a $20 million warehouse facility to fund those loans.
A warehouse funder expects reporting on the loan book, and eleven months after the round a CFO started, followed by a finance business partner two months later.
When the round arrives with a funding line, the finance work arrives with it. The hire came inside the year, which only 28% (5 of 18) of fintechs managed.
Azupay
A head of finance 13 months after the Series A
- Business
- Real-time account-to-account payments for businesses, founded 2019
- Rounds
- Jul 2020 (majority investment); Series A, Sep 2021 (A$10M)
- First finance hire
- Head of finance and company secretary, Oct 2022
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 27 months after; 13 months after the Series A
- Next finance hire
- None yet
- Now
- Head of finance in role (Sep 2026)
Azupay lets businesses take payments straight from a customer’s bank account in real time. Tattarang announced a majority investment in July 2020, and Ellerston Capital led an A$10 million Series A in September 2021.
The first internal finance hire, a head of finance who is also company secretary, started in October 2022, 13 months after the A.
A payments company on the Series A clock: no hire in the first year after the A, then a senior one early in the second. 77% (10 of 13) of the fintechs that waited past a year hired in years two or three.
Driva
A head of finance 42 months after the seed
- Business
- Online car loan marketplace matching borrowers with lenders, founded 2019
- First finance hire
- Head of finance, Nov 2024
- Against the first roundVs first round
- 42 months after
- Next finance hire
- None yet
- Now
- Head of finance in role (Sep 2026)
Driva compares car loans from more than 30 lenders and arranges the finance online. It announced an A$3 million seed in May 2021 and a $6 million growth round ten months later.
Its first internal finance hire, a head of finance, started in November 2024, 42 months after the seed. Most companies at that stage lean on an outside accountant.
A marketplace arranges loans that other lenders fund. Counted with lenders and payments companies here, it ran the long end of their clock.
Against all startups, software and deep tech, fintech starts slower and finishes sooner
| Companies that hired after their first round | Fintech40 companies | All startups191 companies | Software82 companies | Deep tech52 companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hired after the first round | 45%18 of 40 | 48%91 of 191 | 55%45 of 82 | 37%19 of 52 |
| Median wait | 21months | 18months | 18months | 21months |
| Middle half of waits | 12 to 28months | 6 to 36months | 7 to 42months | 5 to 38months |
| Took more than three years | 17%3 of 18 | 25%23 of 91 | 33%15 of 45 | 26%5 of 19 |
Fintech has the tightest middle half, 12 to 28 months, and the smallest share past three years. Each group has its own page: all startups, software and deep tech. The other fintech benchmarks: what to hire first and the second finance hire, and the full study.
Common questions
How long after raising do Australian fintechs hire their first finance person?
Of the 40 funded Australian fintechs in Story Recruitment's study, 45% (18) made their first internal finance hire in the month of their first announced round or later. The median wait was 21 months and the middle half took between 12 and 28 months. 28% (5 of 18) hired within a year and 17% (3) took more than three years.
Do lending and payments fintechs hire finance sooner after a raise?
Most of them do not wait for the raise at all: 63% (15 of 24) of the lending and payments fintechs we tracked had someone in finance before their first announced round. Of the 9 that raised first, 4 hired within a year, against 1 of the 9 other fintechs that raised first. By two years it was 5 of 9 in each group.
How soon after a Series A does a fintech hire finance?
Among 12 fintechs we tracked with no internal finance hire when their Series A was announced, the median was 15 months. 33% (4 of 12) hired within 6 months, no more in the rest of the first year, and 67% (8 of 12) within two years. Across all startups, 46% (21 of 46) hired within a year of a Series A.
Is it normal for a seed-stage fintech to wait years before hiring finance?
In our data, yes. The 8 fintechs we tracked with no internal finance hire when their seed round was announced took a median 31 months to make one, and 1 of the 8 hired within a year. At that stage an outsourced accountant or a fractional CFO usually carries the work in the meantime.
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.
- “Fintech” here means the 40 companies in the study whose product is financial (payments, lending, banking, insurance, wealth, trading or crypto infrastructure). The split into 24 that lend or move money and 16 others is our own reading of each company’s product, the same split as the other fintech pages, and the groups are small, so read the direction.
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.