Fractional CFOs and Fundraising: What Investors Want to See

A practical guide for startups and scaling businesses preparing for investment

Raising capital can be one of the most exciting — and daunting — steps in your business journey. Whether you’re preparing for your first investor pitch or scaling up for Series A, one thing is clear: your numbers need to stack up. That’s where a fractional CFO can make all the difference.

In this guide, we’ll walk through what investors are really looking for in your financials, how a fractional CFO helps you prepare, and why their strategic oversight is invaluable during any funding round.

If you’re exploring funding and want to put your best foot forward, this one’s for you.

What Do Investors Actually Want to See?

Contrary to popular belief, investors aren’t just dazzled by big ideas. They want clear financial visibility, sound forecasting, and a well-considered growth plan. Most importantly, they want confidence that your business can deliver a return.

Here’s what they’re typically looking for:

1. Reliable Historical Financials

You’ll need to show at least 12-24 months of clean financial data. That means accurate profit and loss reports, balance sheets, and cash flow statements — not a folder full of spreadsheets with conflicting numbers.

2. Clear Unit Economics

Investors want to understand how your business makes money. This includes:

Cost per acquisition (CPA)
Customer lifetime value (LTV)
Gross margin
Retention or churn rates (if applicable)

3. A Realistic, Data-Driven Forecast

Is your forecast tied to actual business activity? Or is it an ambitious spreadsheet with no clear logic? The more grounded your assumptions, the more credible your growth story.

4. Cash Flow Visibility

Investors want to know how long their money will last. That means demonstrating your burn rate, runway, and how you’ll use the capital to reach your next milestone.

5. A Clear Use of Funds

“We need $500K for growth” isn’t enough. Be clear about how each dollar will be spent: headcount, product development, marketing, systems — and how that spend ties back to results.

Why a Fractional CFO Is a Game-Changer During Fundraising

A fractional CFO bridges the gap between financial data and business strategy. They help you tell a compelling financial story — not just prepare the reports.

Here’s what that looks like in action:

1. They Get Your Numbers Investment-Ready

Before an investor sees anything, a fractional CFO ensures your books are clean, reconciled, and accurate. They’ll help produce:

Investor-ready financial packs
Scenario-based forecasting
Clear commentary to explain trends or anomalies

2. They Build Credible Forecasts

Too many founders build top-down forecasts that are overly optimistic. A fractional CFO helps you build bottom-up models — grounded in real data and operational inputs.

This helps answer questions like:

What happens if CAC increases by 20%?
Can we still hit breakeven if sales are delayed?

3. They Stress-Test Your Growth Plan

Investors will poke holes in your model. A CFO can help you prepare by:

Running sensitivity analyses
Creating multiple growth scenarios
Mapping out risks and mitigation strategies

4. They Help Articulate Your Financial Story

It’s not just about numbers — it’s about explaining what they mean. A CFO helps translate data into insights:

Why margins improved (or declined)
What customer behaviour is driving revenue
How your cost structure will scale

5. They Join You in the Room (or Zoom)

Many investors want to speak to the finance lead. A fractional CFO can join pitches, answer technical questions, and provide added confidence that you have a solid handle on your numbers.

Key Financial Documents You’ll Need for Fundraising

If you’re preparing to raise capital, your fractional CFO will help create and polish the following documents:

Historical P&L and Balance Sheets (typically 2+ years)
Cash Flow Statements (actual + forecast)
12-24 Month Financial Forecast (with assumptions clearly stated)
Use of Funds Breakdown
KPI Dashboards (e.g. CAC, LTV, churn)
Cap Table and Ownership Structure
Break-even Analysis and Runway Calculation

These documents should be easy to interpret, aligned with your pitch, and updated regularly throughout the investment process.

Common Mistakes Founders Make (That a Fractional CFO Helps Avoid)

1. Overestimating Revenue

Founders often forecast hockey-stick growth. A fractional CFO brings realism — and shows how revenue links to actual activity.

2. Underestimating Costs

It’s easy to miss operational costs, rising salaries, or software creep. A CFO ensures every dollar is accounted for.

3. No Scenario Planning

What if funding is delayed? What if growth slows? Investors want to see you’ve considered multiple outcomes.

4. Disorganised or Incomplete Data

Messy spreadsheets can shake investor confidence. A CFO will consolidate your data, clean it, and present it in a way that builds trust.

What Makes Bond Financial Different

At Bond Financial, we help growth-minded business owners go beyond the basics. Our fractional CFO service is designed to support you through every stage of your funding journey — whether you’re bootstrapping your first round or preparing to scale nationally.

We help you:

Build clean, investor-ready financials
Forecast with confidence
Understand your key metrics and levers
Strategise around capital use and growth planning

We’re also not just CFOs. Our team includes accountants, bookkeepers and strategic advisors. That means we can provide day-to-day support as well as high-level insight — giving you an integrated financial team without the full-time cost.

Tools We Use to Streamline the Process

To make sure your numbers are accurate and up-to-date, we often recommend tools like:

Xero – for bookkeeping, invoicing and tracking expenses
Fathom or Float – for forecasting, scenario planning, and visual reports
Google Sheets or Excel – for bespoke financial models
Customised Dashboards – to monitor investor-critical KPIs

A good fractional CFO won’t just use the tools — they’ll help you understand the output and use it to make better business decisions.

When to Bring a CFO In

If you’re planning to raise capital in the next 6–12 months, now’s the time to engage a CFO. Trying to backfill financials or scramble to build models under pressure can lead to missed opportunities — or worse, funding falling through.

Early involvement means your fractional CFO can:

Help determine how much to raise
Shape your investor narrative
Build systems and reports well in advance
Ensure you’re not caught off guard by diligence questions

Final Thoughts

Fundraising is about more than convincing someone to invest. It’s about proving that your business is financially sound, strategically aligned, and capable of delivering returns.

That’s where a fractional CFO shines.

They help you:

Create financial reports that instil investor confidence
Build realistic forecasts that demonstrate opportunity
Navigate the funding process with fewer surprises

If you’re raising capital — or thinking about it — now is the time to get your numbers in order. A fractional CFO can help you do just that.

Need expert financial support to get investor-ready?