Fractional CFO for data infrastructure companies
Warehouses, lakes, pipelines and observability businesses are consumption-led. Customers pay for compute, storage and data movement, and infrastructure cost scales directly with usage. Reserved capacity, committed-spend discounts and credit-based pricing add accounting nuance that doesn't exist in seat-based SaaS.
Cost-of-revenue reporting attributes infrastructure spend to the customers and workloads driving it, not averaged across the customer base. Customer commitments, credits and ramp deals are tracked so the bridge from bookings to revenue stays accurate through the multi-quarter consumption ramps these contracts include.
Flow provides financial modelling, FP&A and fractional CFO advisory to data infrastructure companies across data warehouses and lakehouses, data integration and ETL/ELT, streaming and event infrastructure, vector and feature stores, and data observability and lineage. We work as the outsourced startup CFO through growth, fundraising and sale processes.
KPIs to track for "data infrastructure" startups
We're very 'KPI-driven' fractional CFOs, and we make sure to monitor the right metrics for your startup.
Consumption revenue
Net retention
Committed-spend backlog
Active customers
Compute / storage units
Gross margin
Workload growth
Customer concentration
Ramp realisation
CAC payback
Financial modelling for "data infrastructure" startups
As fractional CFOs, we build KPI-driven financial models that are insightful and easy to maintain.
Financial modelling is both art and science - models must be robust, but also understandable, and useful for both internal planning and VC fundraising purposes. Hire a fractional CFO who knows how to handle both sides of the equation.
Consumption ramp model
Multi-quarter ramp deals modelled per customer with credit-burn curves, true-up events and overage assumptions. The bookings-to-revenue bridge stays accurate through the long consumption ramps these contracts are built around.
Committed-spend backlog
Committed-use credits, reserved capacity and ramp deals tracked as contracted backlog with realisation rates by cohort. Gives the board a defensible view of how much of next year's revenue is already underwritten by customer commitments.
Infrastructure COGS attribution
Compute, storage, egress and reserved-capacity costs attributed to the customers and workloads driving them rather than averaged across the base. Surfaces the customers where heavy queries are quietly dragging gross margin into the teens.
Workload-level retention
Net retention modelled at workload and use-case level - ETL, warehouse, streaming, lakehouse - because consumption can grow in one workload while another silently churns. Aggregate NDR hides the substitution risk that matters.
Reserved capacity and credits accounting
Customer credits, ramp deals and committed-use discounts modelled through P&L and balance sheet with deferred revenue treatment matched to actual consumption. The recognised-revenue path stops surprising the board at quarter-end.
Cap table and dilution scenarios
Pre/post-money cap table with SAFE conversions, option pool refreshes and conversion under consumption-multiple exit cases. Founders see dilution against the realistic ARR-equivalent trajectory rather than headline consumption growth.
Founders and investors we've worked with
We've supported winning builders across data infrastructure and beyond.
Marcura
We acted as fractional CFO to Dubai-based Marcura, owner of maritime payroll and B2B payments platform MarTrust, advising on the strategic e-Wallet vendor selection and supporting product/finance integration.
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Hector
We acted as fractional CFO to Hector Aurumi, a Dubai-based specialist software house with AI/ML, IoT and data science expertise, providing confidential valuation guidance to the management team.
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Testim
As a fractional CFO we performed a confidential valuation of Testim, a Tel Aviv-based AI-based software testing automation platform, supporting Elevator Fund's portfolio management.
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Panorays
As a fractional CFO we performed a confidential valuation of Panorays, a Tel Aviv-based software platform for third-party security management, supporting Elevator Fund's portfolio management.
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Percepto
As a fractional CFO we performed a confidential valuation of Percepto, a Tel Aviv-based autonomous drone monitoring platform for critical infrastructure and industrial sites, supporting Elevator Fund's portfolio management.
See moreRecent fractional CFO track record
See our fractional CFO and financial modelling experience across data infrastructure and beyond.
Simple pricing
No hidden costs, no complicated long-term contracts. We understand how important flexibility is for data infrastructure startups.
Per month
- Accounting / FP&A tech stack implementation
- Monthly financial statements and reporting pack
- Quarterly board pack with detailed financial analysis (with variance analysis vs. budget, relevant KPI observations etc.)
- Investor-friendly output
Per month
- Everything in Core, plus
- Operating model (via an online platform like Runway or Excel-based)
- Ongoing model maintenance, refining projections, burn/runway management
- Customer cohorts modelling, churn and retention analysis
- LTV / CAC, unit economics analysis
- Cap table management
Per month
- Everything in Grow, plus
- M&A / fundraising support; review of business plan
- Pitch deck preparation
- Investor approach strategy / list building
- Due diligence support and deal negotiation
- Valuation as required and free access to Multiples Pro
Packages shown are illustrative, final pricing is tailored to client requirements.
Explore our fractional CFO offering for similar verticals
We're a specialized fractional CFO to software companies.
Our fractional CFO experience spans across all software verticals.
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We know tech inside & out.
We provide fractional CFO services to companies operating across the entire tech.
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We help you scale by providing fractional CFO advice, through fundraising and a successful M&A exit.
VC fundraising for data infrastructure companies
We help you prepare materials, reach out to investors in our extensive network, negotiate fair term sheets and structure the VC round.
Learn moreM&A for data infrastructure companies
We advise winning tech companies on M&A exits, and over the years successfully executed numerous transactions with both financial and strategic buyers.
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