Fractional CFO Services in London
London-based, CIMA qualified fractional CFO for SaaS, AI and tech founders. Fully remote delivery, fixed monthly retainer, no day rates. Trusted by 47+ UK SaaS companies.
ScaleWithCFO is a London-based fractional CFO service for SaaS, AI and tech founders. Engagements are ongoing support, not a fixed number of days per week - you get direct CFO calendar access, I attend your board meetings by video, and bring financial clarity to every strategic decision - whether that's pricing, hiring, or pitching to Octopus, Notion, LocalGlobe, or Episode 1.
Delivery is fully remote via shared dashboards, regular video calls, and Slack or email. The model works the same whether you're in King's Cross, Old Street, Soho, Farringdon, White City, Canary Wharf, or Stratford - being London-based means I understand the local VC ecosystem, salary benchmarks, and board expectations even when delivery is remote. For founders elsewhere in the UK, see fractional CFO across the UK or our pages for Manchester, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds and Edinburgh.
What a London Fractional CFO Does for Your SaaS Business
Senior financial leadership across every area that matters for a London SaaS or tech founder.
Financial Strategy & Planning
Building your financial model, setting meaningful KPIs, creating budgets tied to your growth plan, and running scenario analysis. Built for the way London VCs (Octopus, Notion, LocalGlobe, Episode 1, Northzone) interrogate the numbers.
Cash Flow Forecasting & Management
Cash kills more London SaaS startups than bad products. I build 13-week cash forecasts, manage burn rate, and time fundraising against the cash gap created by HMRC VAT and PAYE cycles plus the 4-8 week lag on milestone-based enterprise contracts common in London FinTech, HealthTech and AdTech.
Fundraising & Investor Relations
Whether you're raising a London SEIS round, Seed, or Series A, I build the data room, prepare investor-ready financials, model your unit economics, and join investor calls. I know how London VCs price UK SaaS rounds and where the typical UK-vs-US multiple gap shows up.
Management Accounts & Board Packs
Monthly management accounts that actually tell you something useful. Not just a P&L and balance sheet - SaaS metrics like MRR, churn, LTV:CAC, and net revenue retention, presented for your monthly board pack.
Exit Planning & Valuation
If you're thinking about an exit to a London or US acquirer in the next 12-24 months, now is when the financial preparation starts. Clean accounts under FRS 102, defensible UK SaaS valuation comparables, and a narrative buyers trust.
Built for the London Fundraise
London is the deepest SaaS funding market in Europe. ScaleWithCFO has supported fundraises with founders pitching to all the major London VCs and angel networks. Each fund has a slightly different lens on the financial model - deal velocity, ARR multiples, gross margin expectations, burn discipline. I'll know what each one wants before we start prepping.
London SaaS Sectors We Work With
London concentrates more SaaS subsector specialisation than anywhere else in Europe. The financial-reporting work shifts by sector: revenue recognition rules differ for FinTech vs HealthTech vs marketplaces, cash collection timing differs by customer type, and investor benchmarks differ by sub-vertical.
FinTech & InsurTech
Canary Wharf and the City - Monzo, Revolut, Starling, Wise heritage. FCA capital adequacy reporting, AML/KYC operational metrics, interchange revenue accounting, regulatory capital ring-fencing. Revenue recognition for embedded-finance contracts and platform interchange has unique FRS 102 / IFRS 15 treatment.
HealthTech & Digital Health
King's Cross and Soho - the Babylon / Cera Care / Lifebit / Patchwork ecosystem. NHS framework contracts with milestone-based delivery, multi-stakeholder licensing across trust / ICB / private payors, healthcare data services. Cash collection on NHS contracts often runs 60-90 days behind invoice.
AdTech & MarTech
Soho, Shoreditch and Farringdon - the legacy AdTech corridor. Programmatic media buy gross-vs-net accounting, agency-to-platform revenue recognition, performance-based contracts with rebates and clawbacks. Revenue rules tighter than vanilla SaaS.
PropTech
London-specific property tech - rental, lettings, valuation, surveyor SaaS. Long enterprise sales cycles, project-based deployments, integration revenue separated from recurring software, deferred revenue across long onboarding tails. Marketplace fee accounting (gross-vs-net) where transactions are intermediated.
Marketplaces & Consumer SaaS
Shoreditch and East London - marketplace platforms, gig economy, consumer SaaS. Gross-vs-net revenue recognition, take-rate accounting, refund and chargeback reserves, multi-currency settlement, transaction-fee structures that flow through the P&L differently to subscription revenue.
Climate Tech & DeepTech
Imperial College spinouts, UCL deep-tech, hard-tech labs. Long development timelines, grant income alongside commercial revenue, hardware-as-a-service hybrids, milestone-gated contracts. Revenue recognition needs to handle the mix of grant, milestone, and recurring streams cleanly.
London SaaS & Tech Clusters
Remote engagements with founders across all the main London tech clusters. I bring London context - VC ecosystem fluency, salary benchmarks, board expectations - to a fully remote delivery model. No travel charges, no day rates.
How the Engagement Works
Fixed monthly retainer, not day rates. Month-to-month with 30-day notice. Pricing is scoped in writing after the discovery call, NDA, and access to your financials - once we understand the actual scope of work.
A typical London engagement: weekly or bi-weekly financial review calls, monthly board pack with a prep call before the board meeting, on-demand advice between scheduled calls, and warm introductions to London-based accountants, FCA-regulated FinTech advisors, and banking partners (HSBC Innovation, Silicon Valley Bank UK, Allica, Tide).
Fractional vs Full-Time London CFO
Fractional CFO London
- £2K-£5K monthly retainer (full service at every stage)
- Ongoing support, calendar access, scales with need
- Operational from day one
- No equity, no benefits, no NDA risk
- Month-to-month, 30-day notice
Full-Time London CFO
- £150K-£250K base + 1-5% equity
- Full-time, fixed cost regardless of workload
- 3-6 month recruitment + 3 month notice + 3 month onboarding
- Recruiter fee 20-25% of salary
- 12+ month commitment, mis-hire risk at senior level
Frequently Asked Questions
Most London-based SaaS founders find a fractional CFO via referral from their accountant, lawyer, or VC, or via LinkedIn search for CIMA / ACA qualified CFOs with SaaS experience. Look for a CFO who has done at least 5 UK SaaS engagements, can show client references, and has a clear point of view on London-specific items: SEIS/EIS, R&D tax credit, Tech Nation legacy programmes, and the local VC landscape (Octopus, Notion, LocalGlobe, Episode 1).
Across the broader London market, fractional CFO retainers run from £2,000 to £8,000 per month depending on provider, scope and intensity. ScaleWithCFO operates on a single full-service package priced at £2,000 to £5,000 per month - the same scope of work at every stage, with the retainer scaled to complexity: Pre-Seed/Seed £2,000-£3,000, Seed/Pre-Series A £2,500-£4,000, Series A+ £3,500-£5,000. Fixed monthly retainers, no day rates.
Hybrid is the norm. Most London fractional CFO engagements are 1 day a fortnight on-site (typically board day or leadership offsite), with the rest of the work done remotely. For founders in London, on-site is easy. For founders elsewhere in the UK, the model is the same but more weighted to remote.
All of Greater London, with a focus on the SaaS and tech clusters: King's Cross / Granary Square, Old Street / Shoreditch, Soho, Farringdon, White City, Canary Wharf, and Stratford. Most engagements are hybrid (1-2 days on-site per month).
Yes. ScaleWithCFO has supported fundraises with founders pitching to London-based VCs and angel networks including Octopus Ventures, Notion Capital, LocalGlobe, Episode 1, Northzone, Seedcamp, AngelList UK syndicates, and various Tech Nation alumni angel groups. We know what each fund typically looks for in the financial model.
London SaaS multiples have been tracking BVCA / Beauhurst data: 8-15x ARR for early-stage with strong PMF, 12-20x ARR for growth stage at 100%+ YoY, dropping to 4-6x ARR for sub-30% growth. Generally 15-25% below comparable US deals for the same stage and growth profile.
Ready to bring CFO-level thinking to your London SaaS business?
Free 30-minute discovery call. Fully remote engagement - founders across the UK.