ThriveGrowth

Providing Fractional CFO services to various startups in Fintech, SaaS, E-commerce, Digital Marketing, and Sustainability.

Highlights:
•	Built 20+ financial models, resulting in $10m+ investments and an acquisition.
•	Collaborated with startups to extend runway by an average of four and a half months.
•	Advised on metrics dashboards, enhancing Founder understanding of unit economics.
•	Guided startups in successful completion of Seed rounds.
•	Led incorporation of India "tech hub" entity and UK office setup for an Australian fintech, including FCA license application.
•	Raised venture debt funding, extended Fintech startup's runway.
•	Advised on share option schemes using Seedlegals and Vestd.
•	Implemented financial tech stacks for scalable growth.
•	Assisted startups in expanding their operations to the US market, providing strategic guidance and overseeing the successful establishment of US subsidiaries.

Fractional CFO

SHAY CPA P.C.

Fractional CFO helping investment backed companies with a range of services from financial modelling, fundraising to systems and processes.

NatWest Accelerator

The NatWest Accelerator supports and empowers UK entrepreneurs to scale their businesses to the next level.

Mentor

Wilbe | Home for entrepreneurial scientists

Wilbe educates, builds and invests in scientists solving some of the world's hardest problems. Based in London, Wilbe works with scientists from leading research hubs from Cambridge, Imperial, Oxford in the UK to Max Planck in German.

Finance Lead

Highview Power

Highview Power is a technology company which has developed the CryoBattery, a proprietary solution to extending wind and solar energy throughout the day. The company is now positioned to roll out the technology on a commercial basis. Involved from the very early stages to c. £200m valuation.

•	Raised £55m (equity and debt) over 5 rounds, with thorough investor engagement and due diligence.
•	Pioneered go-to-market strategy for proprietary CryoBattery technology.
•	Secured £22m grant funding for commercial and innovation efforts.
•	Developed finance, legal, IT, HR functions to sustain growth.
•	Implemented scalable systems including Xero, Receipt Bank, CapDesk, and more.
•	Spearheaded Corporate Governance policies.
•	Led tax strategy, including transfer pricing, patent box, and R&D tax credits.
•	Setup US subsidiary included navigating regulatory requirements, coordinating legal processes, and liaising with local stakeholders for seamless entry into the US market.

Finance Director

ENGIE

Assistant Reporting Accountant

Publicis Groupe

Senior Management Accountant

I help you grow and scale your business as an outsourced CFO. Through the company I founded, ThriveGrowth, I get to do what I love: support startups and SMEs with my finance expertise. With nearly two decades of finance experience — six as the Finance Director of a technology startup — I know what it means to step into a fast-paced business and pinpoint areas for growth.

During my six years at the aforementioned startup, I:

•	Helped it grow from 10 to 50 people
•	Raised £55m over 6 rounds
•	Created a finance function and the necessary team
•	Enabled the company to expand abroad
•	Watched as the company almost went under and helped turn it around 
•	Grew its valuation to £200m 

Now, I bring everything I’ve learned to founders and entrepreneurs through ThriveGrowth. With real hands-on experience, I can help at each stage of your journey (startup, growing, scaling). If you need a CFO, advisor, consultant, or mentor to help you grow your company, get in touch.

👉🏽Schedule a call: https://calendly.com/thrive-growth
👉🏽Email me: enquiries@thrivegrowth.co.uk
👉🏽Call: 0203 920 8210

Rakesh Shah

Common Interest

Common Interest is a new era holding company created to accelerate brand and business growth through creativity in popular culture. A group designed to combine the smarts and capabilities of creative agency specialists, tech-enabled marketing services and progressive entertainment companies, we deliver impactful work that is data inspired, creatively driven and culturally connected.

My role is to help the Founder and CEO build out the group through both acquisitions and start ups, across the UK and USA. I also have responsibility of all finance and operations across the group.
Common Interest Group companies include TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, Otherway London, and CultureLab.

Chief Financial and Operations Officer

CultureLab

Director

OTHERWAY

TwentyFirstCenturyBrand

Diva Agency

Non Executive Director

Waypoint Partners

Waypoint Partners delivers corporate finance and strategic advisory to service-based and technology-centric enterprises. Our capabilities span M&A, fundraising, office of the CFO, sales strategy & execution, commercial strategy and leadership development. We are a boutique business of c.30 specialists with six Operating Partners, each of which is a seasoned expert in their domain. We have offices in London, Edinburgh, and New York. Waypoint has helped many aspiring ventures to grow and ultimately exit.

Partner

Lab Eight Ltd

I took the leap to move into a consulting role to learn more about the independent marketing and creative communications businesses.  I have been consulting agencies in UK, USA, Singapore and Europe that range from start up to £20m turnover.  Disciplines of agencies I have worked with range from Research Technologies, Creative and Production agencies in Video Gaming, Digital Marketing, Data Analytics, Brand Design, and Growth Marketing.

What I do as a consultant:

•	Help Founders, CEOs and Leadership teams build growth plans and strategies to achieve their ambitions.  
•	Provide expert guidance to founders who need help with growth challenges, and new founders who need help setting commercial and financial foundations.
•	Provide support in building internal finance functions, as well as setting up financial forecasting, reporting and KPIs.  I can also help implement governance, compliance and structure.
•	Provide pricing support and client contract negotiation.
•	Support businesses in events such as a sale
•	Help with international expansion into new markets.

During my time as a consultant, I have:

•	helped lead successful sale of a digital marketing agency to EY
•	helped a data analytics business launch and set up in the USA
•	drove restructuring for a marketing agency, leading to cost efficiencies and margin improvements
•	hired new finance teams and mentored existing teams
•	lead pricing reviews, which have led to higher gross profit margins across businesses
•	lead procurement negotiation and secured lucrative client contracts
•	provided support for investor conversations, for those who wanted to get Venture Capital or Private Equity backing
•	moved a PR agency over to becoming a Ltd from an LLP company.

Consultant CFO

LAB Group

Group Chief Financial Officer

The Gut Stuff

Member Of The Board Of Advisors

Sherper.Group

At Sherper, we help clients at an early stage deal with the key questions of “where to?”, “how to”?, and “when to?”.

By applying a broad and balanced approach based on extensive financial, commercial, and operational expertise we help businesses to be confident that are making the right choices at the right time, in a way that will achieve their ambitions.

We primarily support businesses in marketing and creative services, consultancy, technology and healthcare communications. We utilise our experience and expertise to work with founders, owners, Boards, CEOs and leadership teams, as well as investors including private equity.
We build relationships with our clients based on Affinity. To us that means both trust and support. A sense of caring is at the heart of how we work. Our Integrity matters. Therefore, we always do the right thing for our clients by bringing objective, independent and insightful thinking where the only thing that matters is their success.
We know that every client's journey is unique. It does not matter where they have got to or where they want to go, our guidance is tailored to their needs and to help them find the right path to achieving their ambitions.

Founding Partner

Taking ambitious businesses through their growth journey is the most exciting thing a CFO can do. Strategy and infrastructure needs building; funding has to be found; international opportunities for business and partnership need to be harnessed. There are negotiations to drive with clients and suppliers; commercial frameworks to establish and, in time, acquisitions or exits to guide, whilst always working closely with the inspirational leaders who are at the heart of the business.

I’ve had the good fortune to do that on numerous occasions across agencies in digital creative, market research, and marketing technology sectors. It’s where I get my buzz and how I excel – working with founders, funders and owners; helping them turn their visions into reality, into development and into value. And it’s where I’ve chosen to pursue my career.

I’ve spent much of my career working as a CFO in agencies in the top holding groups, including Omnicom Group Inc. and Publicis Groupe. After leaving Publicis Sapient, I spent almost 3 years working as a consultant CFO for ambitious independent agencies. Sectors have included research technology, healthcare, creative and production studios, brand design studios, and growth marketing.

During my corporate, consultative and fractional CFO work, I have:

▪️supported founders with fundraising, whether it is to buy and build, or to invest in IP - ultimately generating further enterprise value
▪️operated as their right hand, bringing business nous and financial rigour to the planning and execution of growth and development
▪️provided commercial and strategic leadership including leading expansion into new international markets, considering aspects such as tax, legal obligations and risk
▪️brought my commercial lens to procurement discussions and pricing solutions whilst building lasting relationships
▪️helped build reporting infrastructure and processes to support growth 
▪️ensured that good corporate governance is embedded from an early stage

Having been through a sale, myself, and through my consulting and corporate finance roles, I have gained experience in taking businesses through such an event. From deal negotiation, to leading the due diligence process, and post acquisition integration.

I'm really proud of the recognition I have received through my career. My awards include:

▪️Winner: 2020 Technology CFO of the Year (London) - Acquisition International Magazine
▪️Winner: 2018 CFO of the Year - Women in Finance Awards (UK)
▪️Winner: 2016 Business Award (sponsored by NatWest) - Asian Women of Achievement Awards

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The Battle

Rakesh Shah

Deepa Shah

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