The Global Report

THE GLOBAL REPORT

Issue One:

The first edition of The Global Report reached financial leaders in 14 different countries and was viewed almost 200,000 times across print, digital and social media.

Creative Editor’s Acknowledgements

Credits and Thanks

We would like to thank and acknowledge: Dan McEvoy, Nimesh Shah, Dan Gray, Blick Rothenberg, Lucas Nelson and Steve Berg, Lytical Ventures, Gary Ito, Benyam Hagos, Form3, Amit Lakhani, Omaze, Jerome Arnaud, James Hayward, Dr Henri Winand, and Dennis Mahoney, AkinovA.

The Global Report is produced in the United Kingdom by the Camino Search marketing team. All designs, graphics, charts, layouts, logos, unless otherwise stated are property of Camino Search, of 21 Great Winchester Street, London. Information compiled within the report has been researched by the Camino Search team and has been taken from public news sources and information services. The report is not intended to be used to make financial, business or strategic decisions of any kind, rather the editorial intends the publication to be used as an informative read. UK Practice 21 Great Winchester Street, London, EC2N 2JA. US Practice 401E, Jackson Suite 3300, Tampa, FL. The Global Report is printed on sustainable materials by a responsibly resourced carbon neutral print provider. The Global Report is printed in the United Kingdom. Report cover image credit: Image by Monika Häfliger from Pixabay. Modified by Rob Andrews. All imagery throughout the edition is royalty free stock imagery unless specifically stated.

Foreword

From The MD Edition

With the advent of recent geo-political changes of government both current and forthcoming, market confidence has been mercurial in performance through the first half of 2024 - and reading this report, you’ll notice that there are mixed messages across M&A, IPO and investment movements.

Yes, the market has been a bit challenging - but that wasn’t a surprise, was it? We love the space we work within, we’re learning every day and we’re having so much fun being a part of this brilliant ecosystem. From a staffing perspective, the hiring market across the private equity sector has not showed signed of slowing down. Investors and their portcos are still engaged in transformational appointment mandates at C-level.

The appetite for executive search mandates has extended to such, that we have opened our second office, into the United States of America, Tampa, Florida.

Issue Two of The Global Report differs slightly from our first edition. We listened to feedback from our business development and client engagement meetings where we shared copies of the report with the market.

This edition’s focus is more on ‘people’ and journeys, with a heavier emphasis on features, stories and opinions. I was very proud to bring the first edition of the report to market earlier in 2024. Eventually the report ended up in front of tens-ofthousands of investors, founders and executive leaders, across 14 different countries.

The production of this publication would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the Camino Search marketing team and the editorial contributions of our network and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone involved with putting the report together.

May I also take the opportunity to thank you, as a reader, for your interest in the publication, I hope you enjoy the insights, data and information it offers and I wish you a successful end of year in Q4, 2024 and prosperity into 2025.

Harry Harry Hewson Managing Director Camino Search

REAL LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT TRANSFORMING LIMITATIONS INTO POSSIBILITIES

ROBIN SHARMA

THE GLOBAL REPORT ISSUE TWO

PUBLISHED BY CAMINO SEARCH

DESIGNED AND COMPILED BY

ROB ANDREWS, CREATIVE EDITOR, THE GLOBAL REPORT

THE GLOBAL REPORT: ISSUE TWO

GUEST EDITOR’S FOREWORD

‘Feeling the effect of a mercurial geo-political climate’

‘Dan McEvoy................................................................................................................................10

PART ONE: REVIEWING Q1, H1

PART TWO, REVIEWING Q2, H1 Venture

Exploring The Issue

The Contributions

PART THREE: VALUE CREATION

The Path To Successful SaaS Scaling

Gary Ito, Chief Financial Officer, defi SOLUTIONS (Warburg Pincus).....................................................................................................................42

The Interview: ‘The Carve-Out CFO’ Chief Financial Officer Jerome Arnaud & Senior Operating Partner James Hayward........................................................................................................................52

PART FOUR: LEADERSHIP JOURNEYS

The Interview: Scaling International Finance Functions Benyam Hagos, Chief Financial Officer, Form3................................................60

The ‘Unconventional Journey’ Into Finance Leadership Amit Lakhani, CFO, Omaze..............................................................................................68

PART FIVE: GENERATION RISK

Inspiring Trust In AI: What Organisations Need to Consider Steve Berg & Lucas Nelson, Lytical Ventures......................................................80

Re-imagining The Risk Transfer Chain Dr Henri Winand and Dennis Mahoney, AkinovA...............................................86

PART SIX: CLOSING VIEWS

‘The Accountancy Sector’s Greatest Revolution’ Nimesh Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Blick Rothenberg..........................92

‘Afterword and Thanks: The Editor’ Rob Andrews, Director of Marketing, Camino Search...................................99

A Meaningful Impact

VALUE CREATION POWERED BY PEOPLE

Strategic, financial and commercial talent that drives growth and innovation.

Camino Search is the trusted partner of choice investor-backed businesses. Your success is our priority, and we're here to support you every step of the way.

From advising start-ups and SMEs on their first finance hires through to full team builds, we source the industry’s leading talent through our extensive network, cutting-edge software and data-led market analysis.

We are committed to working at pace without compromising on quality, consistently maintaining efficient yet thorough processes, leveraging our international and regional networks.

More than just recruiters; we are true talent partners and trusted advisors, guiding both people and organisations towards their goals, dedicated to making a meaningful impact.

The Editor’s Report Foreword

Feeling the effect of a mercurial geo-political landscape

The last issue — which was, of course, the first issue — of the Global Report told the story of a flat-lining global response to the tumultuous events of 2022, even through the second half of 2023. Artificial intelligence was just about the only positive impetus into capital markets.

Looked at from afar, little appears to have changed in the first half of 2024.

Interest rates remained elevated as central banks engaged in a three-way staring match with soaring inflation on the one hand, and the threat of economic downturns on the other. Globally speaking, markets stagnated.

Yet, the first half of this year has significantly more cause for optimism. The global picture of stagnation masks significant variation at regional level: North American private equity investments, for example, increased nearly 50% year-overyear in Q1.

This geographical variation is taking place, perhaps inevitably, alongside considerable geopolitical tension.

Whoever wins election to the White House in November’s election will still have a belligerent Russia, a brooding China, and a Middle East teetering on the precipice of allout war to contend with.

These strained international relations can’t help but breathe caution into markets.

However, the Federal Reserve appears to be winning its own war against inflation. September’s bumper rates cut could foreshadow a return to growth during the second half of the year, with the global picture buoyed by the European Central Bank’s own cut the previous week.

Whisper it, but a global return to growth might just be on the cards.

About Dan

Dan McEvoy is an experienced freelance financial journalist, writing for a variety of publications. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Dan returns in issue two of The Global Report with commentary on H1 of 2024’s investment activity.

Dan McEvoy

Guest Editor, The Global Report (H1 Data)

Globally speaking, markets stagnated. Yet, the first half of this year has significantly more cause for optimism.

Section One

Q1 IN REVIEW

Exploring a round-up of the first quarter’s key investments, mergers and initial public offerings.

A Frosty Global Outlook

According to KPMG’s Venture Pulse report, total global VC investment fell from $95.7bn to $75.9bn during Q1 2024, marking a 20.7% year-over-year decline.

Data from Dealroom reiterates the yearover-year fall, though according to this data set it is less severe than that measured by KPMG.

Dealroom puts Q1 2024’s total at $82.2bn compared to $86.7bn in the equivalent period last year, representing a year-overyear decline of 5.2%.

20.7%

VC investment fell from $95.7bn to $75.9bn during Q1 2024, marking a 20.7% yearover-year decline.

Start-Up and Slowdown

Clearly, this wasn’t a strong quarter for start-up funding. However, different data sources vary on exactly how bad it was.

Crunchbase, for example, puts the quarter as “the second-lowest on record for global start-up funding since the beginning of 2018”.

In KPMG’s report into UK VC funding during the quarter, Nicole Lowe, Head of Emerging Giants, KPMG UK, wrote that “over the last 18 months, the macroeconomic environment has changed dramatically with political uncertainty and cost of borrowing all rising”.

Lowe views the record levels of VC investment in the UK during 2021-22 as an “outlier period” in reaction to the Covid pandemic.

Online platforms

The Cause For Positivity...

However, the deals that did happen give cause for positivity about some of the UK’s top-performing start-ups.

Challenger bank Monzo secured £490m ($610m) funding during the quarter, increasing its valuation to £4.1bn ($5.2bn) in the process. Airbnb [ABNB] and Uber [UBER] investor Hedosophia, as well as CapitalIG, Alphabet’s [GOOGL] independent growth fund, led the investment round.

Monzo is mounting a significant challenge to the UK’s traditional banks, adding two million new customers in the last year to bring its total customer base to over nine million.

Globally, two of the quarter’s three largest rounds went to Chinese companies.

Moonshot AI, a developer of large language models (LLMs) based in Beijing, secured the quarter’s largest round with a $1bn raise led by Alibaba Group [BABA].

Alibaba also led the $600m round secured by Shanghai’s MiniMax, an AI companion and avatar creator, the third largest of the quarter.

TWO IN THREE

The year-over-year decline of global VC Investment.

$1bn RAISED

The quarter’s largest raise, by online platform Alibaba.

Q1 | M&A

Mergers’ Emergent Recovery

S&P Global puts the total value of global M&A deals during Q1 2024 at $549bn, a year-over-year increase of 28%, while GlobalData puts the total at $613bn, implying a 38% year-over-year increase.

$549bn

Global M&A deals in Q1, 2024. A 28% increase.

Energy Provides The Spark...

S&P Global data indicates that the Energy sector saw the majority of deal activity during the quarter, with $86.2bn worth of deals in the sector.

This marks a 381% year-over-year increase in Energy M&A deal value from $17.9bn a year prior.

$86.18bn

The value of deals in the energy sector in Q1.

The Big Deal

The largest deal of Q1 was Capital One’s [COF] $35.34bn acquisition of Discover Financial Services [DFS].

The deal was announced on 19 February, and will accelerate Capital One’s goal of establishing a global payments company that works directly with merchants.

“Our acquisition of Discover is a singular opportunity to bring together two very successful companies with complementary capabilities and franchises, and to build a payments network that can compete with the largest payments networks and payments companies,” Richard Fairbank, founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Capital One was quoted as saying at the time.

Next on the list of the quarter’s largest deals was Synposys’ [SNPS] agreement to acquire Ansys [ANSS] in a deal valuing Ansys at $35bn, followed by the $26bn merger between Diamondback Energy [FANG] and Endeavour Energy Resources.

Rounding out the top five were Home Depot’s [HD] acquisition of SRS Distribution for $18.25bn and Novo Holdings’ $16.5bn buyout of Catalent [CTLT].

£35.34bn

Capital One’s acquisition of Discover Financial Services.

Q1 | PE Private Equity

Global Snapshot

Global private equity (PE) deal making fell in Q1 2024, with the number of deals declining 9.6% year-over-year to 1,504.

The amount of capital invested also fell slightly, from $388bn to $385bn.

But there is considerable geographic variation in the results.

Q1 | Deal Digest 5%

Decrease in global PE exits in Q1 76

Total PE exits recorded

North America

48.5%

Increase $101bn to $150bn.

UK/Europe

6.8%

Increase to $78bn.

50%

Down. Halved from £65bn to £33bn.

Deal -making Diversity

In North America, PE investments actually increased 48.5% year-over-year from $101bn to $150bn.

Similarly, Europe’s PE markets saw investment increase 6.8% to $78bn (though they dropped off considerably from $125bn in the previous quarter).

in Q1 2024. PE exits also slowed globally, with the 76 exits registered during the quarter marking a 5% year-over-year decline. PE firms appear to be responding to continued market volatility by retaining their portfolio companies for longer.

Biggest Deals

In February, a group led by Stone Point Capital and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice reached a definitive agreement to complete the buyout of Truist Insurance Holdings (TIH) from Truist Financial Corporation [TFC], with the all-cash transaction valuing TIH at $15.5bn. The deal was completed in May.

Elsewhere, FIS [FIS] agreed to sell a 55% stake in payments technology platform Worldpay to GTCR, with Worldpay valued at $18.5bn in the transaction. GTCR was reported to be providing $1.3bn of equity capital investment to support Worldpay’s acquisition strategy.

$15.5bn

The TIH transaction, completed in May, 2024.

Q1 | IPO

Geopolitical Uncertainty slows IPOs

Impacted by Putin’s Onslaughts?

IPO proceeds during Q1 fell 3.4% year-overyear to $23.3bn, with the volume of deals also falling by 13.1% to 298. S&P Global attributes the slowdown to “high interest rates and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty”. The dramatic slowdown coincided with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, like that conflict, the economic consequences are ongoing.

As Economics Observatory notes, the impacts of the war include elevated food and energy prices globally; “the longer the war goes on, the deeper the economic crisis goes”.

3.44%

The amount IPO proceeds during Q1, fell, YoY.

Geographical variations

China Hits A Great Wall...

On the other hand, this gloomy global picture masks considerable geographical variation.

Europe and the US saw marked increases in the value of new issues, and the US also saw a 48.5% increase in the number of companies going public (from 33 in Q1 2023 to 49 in Q1 2024), according to EY.

The global drag on the sector came from Asia; particularly China.

The country’s IPO market declined by 62.5% from $10.4bn to $3.9bn, with the number of listings more than halving from 86 to 42.

A ‘gloomy global’ picture masks considerable geographical variation. The global drag on the sector came from Asia; particularly China.

(Image: ‘The Great Wall’. Representation image designed for The Global Report).

Cosmetics Market Looking Great Sitting Pretty

Europe’s strength in the IPO market during the quarter is underscored by the fact that three of the five largest IPOs of the quarter took place on European exchanges.

Skincare company Galderma’s [GALD:SW] listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange on 21 March raised CHF2bn (approximately $2.23bn).

Galderma quickly saw its share price surge from the CHF53 listing price to close at CHF64 the following day, valuing the company at approximately CHF15bn ($16.7bn).

Between its listing and the end of Q1, Galderma’s shares gained 19.5%; as of the end of Q2, this had risen to 39.6%.

Cosmetics continued to dominate as beauty retailer Douglas’ [DOU:F] return to the Frankfurt exchange, following its 2013 de-listing, raised €850m (approximately $925.70m) to mark the quarter’s thirdlargest IPO and value the company at €2.8bn ($3.05bn).

Europe’s strength in the IPO market during the quarter is underscored by the fact that three of the five largest IPOs of the quarter took place on European exchanges.

€850m

Beauty retailer Douglas raised €850m on its return to the Frankfurt exchange, 11 years after its de-listing in Q1’s thirdlargest IPO.

Section One

Q2 IN REVIEW

Exploring a round-up of the second quarter’s key investments, mergers and initial public offerings. H1

*Research and data sources available to view on page 99

Q2 | VC

The Global Snapshot

Having observed a steep year-over-year decline in VC funding during Q1, KPMG’s findings for Q2 paint a far more optimistic picture. Globally, VC investment rose to a five-quarter high of $94.3bn.

This marks a 11.6% increase on the $84.5bn reported for Q2 2023.

While total investment is up, however, this appears to have been driven by a small number of high value deals.

The nine $1bn+ ‘mega-deals’ completed during the quarter marked the secondhighest quarterly total in history.

‘Deal Descent’

Deal volume was actually down during the quarter, falling 1.2% year-overyear-quarter to 7,691.

Q2 | M&A

The Global Snapshot

Global M&A deals totalled $552.8bn in Q2, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence — a 2.3% year-over-year increase, though slightly down on the previous quarter.

There was a significant increase in the value of take-private deals, which hit $67.7bn — the highest quarterly value since Q2 2022 and a 139.2% increase year-over-year.

Again, this global narrative is more complex on a regional level.

Total deal value fell 5% year-over-year in the US and Canada, 11% in Africa, 13% in Asia-Pacific, and a whopping 76% in the Middle East. Conversely, total M&A deal values rose 30% in Europe and 46% in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Major Mergers

ConocoPhillips’ [COP] $225bn merger with Marathon Oil [MRO] will be the biggest acquisition of the quarter, according to S&P Global — if it goes ahead.

Reuters reported in July that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sent two requests for information over the acquisition.

Both companies are cooperating with the FTC, but the deal’s close is likely to

be delayed as a result. Silver Lake’s takeprivate acquisition of Endeavour [EDR] is second on the list with a transaction value of $21.1bn, while Guolian Securities $17bn buyout of fellow Chinese brokerage Minsheng Securities ranks third.

Q2 | PE

PE’s ‘Long COVID’ Experience

According to PitchBook data, global private equity capital invested totalled $322.1bn in Q2, 2024.

Combined with Q1 data, this puts total PE investment for the first half of the year at $620.60bn, across 7,004 deals.

These figures paint a gloomy picture of the private equity market.

It represents a year–over-year decline of 8.5% in capital invested and 18.3% in terms of the number of deals.

In both cases, this represents the weakest half-year for PE markets since H1 2020 — which marked the onset of the Covid pandemic in the US and Europe.

Q2 | Top IPOs

Endeavor: King of the Ring

Silver Lake led a take-private deal for Endeavor which gave it a $13bn equity value and $25bn consolidated enterprise value, making it the largest PE sponsor takeprivate deal for ten years.

Endeavor, a global sports and entertainment giant, is the majority owner of TKO — the operating company that formed out of last year’s merger between EFC and WWE.

Acquirer

Silver Lake, Mubadala, DFO Management, Lexington Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Blackstone

Permira Ltd, Spaceship Purchaser Inc

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Global Infrastructure Management, Allow Parent LLC Bain Capital LP

Q2 | IPO

IPO Market Remains Fragile

The IPO market is also struggling to rebound.

Quarter-over-quarter, Q2 registered a 26.7% uptick in the aggregate equity offered globally, to $29.6bn. However, this masks a 20.6% year-over-year decline.

Combined with the slow start in Q1, this makes the first half of 2024 the weakest in terms of proceeds raised through IPOs since prior to the onset of the pandemic. H1 IPO

proceeds fell 13.8% year-over-year, and are down 35.6% since H2 2022.

As in Q1, however, the global picture hides a more complex story in particular geographies. The US IPO market registered its most successful quarter since Q1 2022, with 35 IPOs selling securities worth $8.68bn.

Q2’s Top US IPOs

Waystar Holding [WAY]

Waystar, a healthcare payments software firm that incorporates AI to help customers manage their revenue cycles, raised $968m in H1 2024’s largest IPO by a US-based company. Shares fell 3.7% in the first session to $20.70, which gave Waystar a valuation of $5.7bn.

UL Solutions [ULS]

Technology testing and certification company UL Solutions saw the second largest IPO in the US during Q2, raising $946.4m by selling 33.8 million shares. The shares gained 21% during their first session, netting UL Solutions a $6.8bn valuation.

Rubrik [RBRK]

Cyber security firm Rubrik raised $752m at a $5.6bn valuation at its 26 April listing. The shares opened at $38.60, with Rubrik having sold 23.5 million shares at $32, above its expected range of $28–31. The

shares fell slightly from the opening price on the day, but gained 16% from issuance to close at $37.

Ibotta [IBTA]

Ibotta’s 18 April IPO continued the show of strength for the US tech sector, as the digital marketing firm backed by Walmart [WMT] raised $577.3m by issuing 6.6 million shares. The stock gained 33% during its first session, leaving Ibotta with a market value of $3.55bn.

PACS Group [PACS]

The only entrant in the US’ five largest IPOs of Q2 2024 from outside the technology sector is PACS Group, a healthcare company that delivers nursing care through a portfolio of independently operated facilities. Its 11 April IPO raised $450m; shares opened and closed at $23, 9.5% above their offering price of $21, and valuing the company at $4bn

Exploring

VALUE CREATION

From scaling SaaS businesses to creating carve-outs, three financial leaders from across Europe and the USA share insights into growing and shaping successful investor-backed businesses.

Gary Ito, Chief Financial Officer, defi SOLUTIONS.

Value Creation

The Path To: Successful SaaS Scaling

Gary Ito, Chief Financial Officer of USA-based Warburg Pincusbacked defi SOLUTIONS, outlines considerations SaaS businesses should make when scaling and on the eventual journey to exit.

There are two key and related principles of SaaS that are critical to and underpin the success of this business model;

Firstly: a licensing model, in which access to software is provided on a subscription basis and Secondly: software deployed remotely (either in the cloud or external servers, i.e. not ‘on-prem’) and accessed via the internet (ie: Software as a Service).

The revenue model of subscription gives clear forward visibility of future revenues, since future revenue is contractually guaranteed and in the ideal form, paid annually in advance, for a year-plus, going forward. Combined with the efficient delivery model of a single instance multitenant software architecture, SaaS software companies scale via their inherent strong unit economics.

These two factors; a high visibility subscription model; and scalable technology architecture allows SaaS

companies to command strong multiples when a SaaS business is performing with industry leading revenue growth rates, and strong EBITDA metrics.

Having been with a number of SaaS subscription software companies, the rule of 40; the combination of, or sum of percentage of annual revenue growth plus EBITDA as a percentage of revenue, I have found to be the best “North Star” for aligning business decisions and operating strategies for the company. Of course, it is a trade-off. Having healthy management debates on investments which consume near term EBITDA, for greater growth and/ or future stronger EBITDA performance via lowered costs.

An eye to what the market is respectfully rewarding for these two competing priorities is key. While hyper growth was once highly valued, with revenue multiples at their height in the 2020/21, the current market has shifted [continued overleaf ->]

to sustainable, profitable growth. A target of 20% to 40% year-over-year growth is often seen as healthy and generating strong market demand, depending on the company’s size and market maturity.

At more than 30% revenue growth rates, companies can command a revenue multiple valuation; at lower growth rates, EBITDA multiples become the valuation rule. CFOs need to be astutely cognizant of which approach applies to their company.

For SaaS companies, ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) is THE key metric. ARR is often referred to as the “snowball” because of its recurring nature. Each new customer becomes a new ‘wedge’ of revenue piled on top of each other, like a snowball getting progressively larger as it rolls downhill. With that image in mind the ARR snowball metric focuses the organization on retaining and growing the existing customer base, while adding new customers to the snowball.

In the past, SaaS subscription software companies have been valued on a multiple of ARR. Today, less so, but still a valuable benchmark for valuations. And today, many lenders underwrite to the recurring revenue of a company.

The emphasis in the current market and valuation of SaaS companies has moved from pure growth to profitability. The market is currently biased toward EBITDA positive companies, or to those which have a clear path to profitability within a reasonable time frame. This makes the company more resilient and attractive in a market where cash burn is scrutinized.

There are a few other key metrics that SaaS companies should focus on, ensuring they understand down to the root causes and core fundamentals:

Gross Margin: is a metric which provides insight into the underlying financial unit economics of a company. SaaS companies typically target gross margins of 70%+, and the best in class, above 80%.

At more than 30% revenue growth rates, companies can command a revenue multiple valuation; at lower growth rates, EBITDA multiples become the valuation rule. CFOs need to be astutely cognizant of which approach applies to their company.

Those companies with high gross margins both can efficiently scale, and generate the financial headroom for accelerating strong top line growth via additional investments in go to market or product.

Retention Rate: A low customer churn rate is crucial and table stakes for a recurring revenue company. It all comes back to the ARR snowball – increasing the net retention rate grows the snowball, even before adding new customers (always a more expensive and challenging way to grow). Leading SaaS companies already have, or target gross retention rates in the mid 90s, while net revenue retention rates (NRR) of 110%+, is an indication of existing customers are not only staying, but also growing their spend.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and LTV:

Target a customer lifetime value (LTV) to CAC ratio of at least 3:1. This ratio reflects efficient customer acquisition and retention strategies, and is an all encompassing metric for measuring the quality of a company’s installed base of customers (LTV) and the efficiency and effectiveness of its go to market functions (CAC).

For SaaS companies, ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) is THE key metric. ARR is often referred to as the “snowball” because of its recurring nature, each new customer becomes a new ‘wedge’ of revenue piled on top of each other, like a snowball getting progressively larger as it rolls downhill.

‘Getting ready for the exit’

When the company begins to think about an exit, there are several factors to consider. Is the company ready and have the features attractive to the public (IPO) market, financial sponsor or strategic acquirer?

From an internal standpoint at ‘micro’ level, examine, understand and most importantly take the perspective - as an outside third party potential acquirer - of the company’s financial performance.

The keys to consider are the sustainability of revenue growth, profitability, cash flow, and overall balance sheet strength. Does the company have well documented/ proven business characteristics that are attractive to potential buyers?

Another factor is market position. Is the business a market leader, a unique niche or based on value proposition; how differentiated is your product or service? Does the business have a strong competitive moat; and consider the quality and diversity of the customer base. A broad, loyal customer base with low churn is a highly valued asset.

Scalability is of interest to investors. How scalable is the business model and is there a (or several) clear growth trajectory (ies) that would appeal to buyers or investors. Again, taking the view of the acquirer, are there additional investments or synergies only available from an acquirer that could take the company to the “next level”. It’s also important to review operational efficiencies.

In reviewing the efficiency of operations, are there any inefficiencies or risks that should be addressed, reduced or rectified before considering an exit.

Finally, ‘team strength’ should be considered.

From an independent and unbiased viewpoint, consider the competence, capabilities and stability of the management team. A strong team is often a key factor for buyers and investors, especially in considering the ongoing leadership post-exit.

In relation to macro conditions, start at the highest level; where is the current economic cycle. Or more specifically, in a year or

when you might be coming to market, will the economy be in expansion, at its peak, or moving into a contraction or a trough. While it’s not possible to precisely predict, consider the alternatives and accumulate a variety of views and inputs to help set the expectations for your investors and management team.

It’s also recommended to consider other economic indications, such as, interest rates, which influence the cost of capital. Higher rates can dampen acquisition activity, while lower rates might stimulate it.

Inflationary pressures can affect operating costs and profit margins, influencing valuation and buyer interest.

Geopolitical tensions, such as trade wars, or global crises - like the 2020 COVID pandemic- can impact market conditions, access to capital, and investor confidence. If your company operates internationally, consider the impact of cross-border regulations, tariffs, and currency exchange rates on your exit strategy.

And it’s also important to understand and consider the state of the specific industry which your company competes in.

Keep an eye on investor sentiment and trends within your industry. For instance, sectors that are experiencing rapid innovation or regulatory changes may see fluctuating valuations.

You should be aware of how technological advancements or disruptions might impact your business or industry in the near future. Companies in sectors facing significant disruption might need to exit sooner to capture value.

Be informed about potential regulatory changes that could impact your business, either positively or negatively. Regulatory risks can affect valuation and timing. There are different types of buyers (strategic vs. financial) who may value your company differently. Strategic buyers typically are able / willing to pay a premium for synergies, while financial buyers focus on ROI and operational value creation.

Finally, when it comes to considering macro conditions, seek the input and advice from external advisors - investment bankers, accountants, market consulting firms ex. Gartner, and (yes – even) lawyers, can all add perspectives which will make your analysis more complete.

(Image: ‘Keeping Momentum’. Representation image designed for The Global Report).

‘Keeping momentum’

Navigating an exit, whether as a founder or an investor, can be a complex and emotional process. To simplify, maintain momentum, and to achieve the best outcome, there are a few strategies and anecdotes to consider. It’s never too early to start planning or at a high level, mapping out the major milestones you will need to execute on before an exit.

Laying the groundwork of a solid and current understanding of the market, its overall trends, and the competitive landscape provides a basis for all of the other elements of work in preparing for an exit.

A key to a successful exit, is alignment across the management team and the investors on the goals of the exit. Whilst maximizing financial returns tends to come to the forefront, there can be other priority goals such as ensuring the company’s legacy or transitioning smoothly.

In the case of an HCM software company where I was CFO, we started very early and with our PE investors had worked the view of an ideal exit. In this case, our Chairman, who was independent, played a vital role in bridging the differing views between the investors and management.

“ Navigating an exit, whether as a founder or an investor, can be a complex and emotional process.

”

While I was not at the company for the final exit, the work done in advance allowed the company to complete a successful transaction a year+ after my departure. In the case of another company, this time in the supply chain space, the key success factor of open lines of communication was critical for a very successful exit. In this case, the complication of a founder who was not in management, but active at the Board level, had his view of what a successful exit would be; in contrast with the PE firm that controlled the Board and the company.

In this case, the CEO worked both at board meetings, and during many unofficial meetings in between, to understand and bring the two sides together. Included, was the brilliant move of obtaining an unsolicited outside bid from another PE firm to compare and contrast the deal which was on the table.

This kind of creativity is almost always needed to navigate through the on-again / off-again, nature of completing an exit transaction.

I would consider, also, a few other points to keep in mind towards driving to a successful exit:

Realistic Valuation: Establish a realistic valuation based on current financial performance and market conditions. Over valuation can lead to failed negotiations, while undervaluation may leave money on the table.

Multiples: Consider what multiples are typically applied in your industry and whether your company can command a premium based on its unique strengths.

Alignment with Potential Buyers: Identify / choose those potential acquirers or investors who would see strategic value in your business. As much as possible, put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and emphasize what aspects of your company would be most attractive to them.

Be Strategic in Negotiations: Focus on the key terms that matter most to you. If every term is critical, then none are. Be prepared to compromise on less critical issues to close the deal.

Simple learnings...

All of the exits which I’ve been privileged to be a part of have each been different, and I’ve tried to learn as much from each of them. Few learnings for a successful exit:

Take the long view: There will inevitably be ups and downs. I can’t tell you how many times “the deal is off .. deal is on .. deal is off … the deal is back on”. Persistence and perseverance win the day.

Take control of your lawyers: They work for you. And the lawyers will continue to work/ re-cycle/edit until there is the perfect deal.

Be wary of the ‘perfect deal’: Don’t let “perfect” get in the way of signing a very good deal.

Try to put yourself in the other side’s shoes, as you work to overcome blockers or solution impasses. Exits put me through the depths of despair to the exhilaration of

achievement. Try to learn and enjoy the ride as much as you can. Exits are key markers in your career and your experience going through one is worth its weight in gold.

The ‘First-Time’ CFO’s Exit

The first and in my view, foremost priority to prepare for an exit is to ask the question; ‘is the business ready to go through due diligence?’

For SaaS software subscription based businesses, the ‘ARR snowball’ is critical. The integrity of the ARR snowball metric and traceability of the components of the ARR snowball are critical to gaining the comfort and confidence of the buyer in what then drives recurring revenue. The ARR snowball must be built, layer-upon -layer, at the customer and the product level.

This means the buyer can trace back each line of the ARR snowball back to the underlying contract supporting that line of ARR. Each and every historical transaction that occurs with the customer and the product transacted, including a new customer, an expansion (additional number of seats or licenses of the same product), a cross-sell (addition of a new product or module with the same customer), price increase and then on the negative side, a down sell or cancellation.

Each of these transactions, and timing of each, are what drives activity metrics such as bookings (new customers, expansions and cross-sells), negatives to the snowball and price increases.

Each transaction must be easily visible and auditable as this detail supports the reporting of the key metrics of bookings, gross and net retention and price increases. Additionally, this data enables cohort analysis to answer a complex question such as; “of those customers who signed on in first quarter of 2022, how many are still with the company and of those, how many have expanded their footprint with the company.”

(Image: ‘The Career Journey Light bulb’. Representation image designed for The Global Report).

“ Exits are key markers in your career and your experience going through one is worth its weight in gold.

”

Similarly down to the product level; “of those customers who signed on in, for example Q1/22 with this product, how many have been cross sold into an additional module”, etc. Related to the ARR snowball, is understanding and being able to demonstrate the path from reported ARR, to invoicing, to revenue recognition through to cash collection.

At my most recent company, an enterprise portfolio management software company, we embarked on an ARR reconciliation project to more accurately forecast recurring revenues. The project broke down to its fundamental elements, tracing data and information out of SalesForce, the database of record for contract and base ARR transactional data, then tracing through to Netsuite for invoicing.

Accounting for timing differences is a recognition of the complexities that arise when tracking from ARR to revenue. As an example of timing differences, a contract might have signed at year-end on December 31st, but the service period start date isn’t until February 1st, when revenue recognition starts. Then tracking this all the way through to invoicing, A/R, collections to cash in the bank.

Layer on top, the complexities of differing payment terms, slow payers, quarterly in advance versus annual in advance invoicing, and it is easy to the land on the necessity of having a transactional database to support a clean ARR snowball. Make sure all of the company’s financials are in order. This is ‘table stakes’ for an exit and I am sure most CFOs, as a minimum, must ensure this is a case. Building on this is extending the level of financial discipline to the forecasting side of the house.

Critical to the prospective buyers of the company is a well constructed, detailed and fully supported forecast. Whilst most of the companies I’ve been at have been focused on annual plans and performance against those plans, when it comes to a transaction, additional scrutiny is applied to the two or three-year longer range plans that companies must supply. One other point I would highlight,

which isn’t always in the CFO’s area of responsibility, but is important in today’s environment for prospective buyers: InfoSec or Cyber Security. A data breach is often at the top of a very short list of issues which can kill a deal and potentially destroy a SaaS software company. As a matter of normal operations, and even more importantly in due diligence leading up to a transaction, is reviewing and re-enforcing security protocols safeguarding the company’s production and back-office data.

By following this advice, I hope you can approach the exit process with confidence, ensuring that the company is wellpositioned for a successful outcome and that you, as CFO, contribute significantly to that success.

“ A key to a successful exit, is alignment across the management team and the investors on the goals of the exit. While maximizing financial returns tends to come to the forefront, there can be other priority goals such as ensuring the company’s legacy or transitioning smoothly.

Camino Search would like to extend a special ‘thank you’ to Gary Ito for sharing his time and knowledge to complete this article.

About The Expert

Gary Ito

Having spent his foundational years and the first half of his career at Nortel Networks, a global, telecommunications equipment supplier to telecom services providers for local, long distance and mobile networks and large enterprises - Gary moved into SaaS software company, Quadrem. The company scaled and after selling to Ariba, became a key growth engine which powered Ariba to its subsequent sale to SAP.

Using experienced gained in the earlier part of his career with Quadrem Gary has worked as CFO for a series of successful PE-backed SaaS companies, including:

Allegro – a supply chain (risk management and commodity trading) focused on the energy industry backed by Guidepost growth equity. Sold to Vector Capital.

OutMatch – HCM software focused on new hire assessments and talent acquisition process optimization, owned by Sunstone partners; subsequently sold to Rubicon.

DealerSocket – a Vista equity company in the automotive vertical, selling a portfolio of solutions to North American new and used car dealers. A leader in its space, the company exited to Solera, a very large software house in the automotive vertical.

Planview – (TPG / TA portfolio company) a prototypical SaaS enterprise software company. An acquisitive company, Planview is a leader in the project and product management software.

He has had the opportunity to work with a variety of PE firms ranging from the low end – Guidepost (formerly North Bridge) and Sunstone (formerly Trident) in the single digit $B of AUM ($1.4B and $2.1B; to larger PE firms – TA at $41B, Warburg Pincus at $90B; to very large – Vista equity at more than $100B, and TPG the largest at more than $250B.

Gary was recently appointed Chief Financial Officer at the Warburg Pincusbacked, USA-based defi SOLUTIONS, in Q3 of 2024.

Value Creation

THE CARVE-OUT CFO

Chief Financial Officer Jerome Arnaud and Senior Operating Partner James Hayward discuss the role that CFOs play in private equity-based carve-outs in Europe, with Director of Interim Practice, Tom Garratt; understanding how they have successfully navigated the complexities of the separation process.

(Graphic: ‘The Carve-Out Conversation’. Representation image designed for The Global Report).

THE CFO plays a critical role in a carve-out process as they handle the financial structuring, valuation, and separation of the business to ensure a smooth transition to independent operations.

They manage the financial strategy, mitigate risks, and ensure the new entity is financially viable and compliant.

In this Q&A, myself, Jerome and James discuss key considerations and action points to consider during the carve-out experience.

This Q&A interview was recorded with Interim Practice Director, Tom Garratt (pictured, right), in September 2024 and transcribed for The Global Report.

The Carve-Out Q&A

Introducing The Experts

Arnaud

Chief Financial Officer

Jerome Arnaud brings 25 years of international corporate and operational finance experience, successively based in Europe, the USA and Asia - where he has been as an auditor for PwC and Chief Financial Officer of multiple software and services companies, ranging from PE backed companies to businesses listed on EURONEXT or NASDAQ.

Senior Operating Partner, HIG Europe

James Hayward is a Senior Finance Operating Partner at HIG Capital Europe. He has more than 35 years’ experience as an independent Chef Financial Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, advisor principally working in restructuring, transformation and carve-outs for private, PE, listed businesses across multiple sectors and geographies.

Camino Search would like to extend a special thank you to both Jerome and James for sharing their expertise for the second edition of The Global Report.

James Hayward

Jerome

Tom Garratt: Typically, as CFO what are they key priorities and time lines for the first 100 days within a PE backed Carveout?

James Hayward: The typical carve-out is a small division / business unit divested from a large corporate.

Back-office functions are all provided centrally (the standard tech stack being SAP, Salesforce and Workday) by the parent company and the primary objective is to disentangle the businesses with the minimum of disruption. This usually takes 12-18 months.

The first phase of a carve out is all about planning and starts at the pre-completion stage. The focus is on setting up the PMO function, putting in place a governance and control structure and ramping up the recruitment of interim / permanent resources to support the execution of the carve out. It’s never too early to hire [as] you want to hit the ground running on completion.

Tom: How does a carve-out align with the broader strategic goals of the company, and how did you ensure that these goals were met?

Jerome Arnaud: This is a complicated question with an answer that results from a thorough analysis and understanding of the strategy, the business and the financial reporting. The BP exercise and the products’ road maps are the key components to be ready to demonstrate that the value of the company is articulated and growing. The CFO spends a tremendous amount of time with Excel to show the past is understood and KPIs are appropriately projected. The CFO should be very flexible to develop different scenarios. Impacts on valuation, or on the LBO structure are indeed of a very significant importance for the PE firm.

James: A carve out is a tactical exercise with the aim being to disentangle the carved-out business from the old parent with the minimum disruption. Exiting from a large corporate is a golden opportunity to optimise the business processes, systems and people etc. for the new business. The ideal scenario is to leave the front end of the business largely untouched, and shake up the back office

/ support operations. The focus should be on standing up the business as quickly and efficiently as possible, rather than trying to build a complex system by day one.

Tom: How can you effectively manage the separation of financial systems, reporting, and controls between the parent company and the new entity?

Jerome: Financial systems could be easily separated away from the parent company. The CRM and the ERP are however intricate with Finance: the invoicing, the pricing, the product configuration, the payroll system and make the separation extremely complicated. The reporting can be easily modified to meet the needs of the new entity. Unfortunately, some of the KPIs may remain manually tracked before the financial systems are redesigned, which redesign depends on the difficult decision to use, modify or change the CRM and/or the ERP.

James: Critical to a successful separation is the setting up of an effective programme management office with an appropriate governance structure signed off by vendor and buyer. This establishes a framework for reporting, setting strategic time lines, dealing with disputes and ensuring that all parties take responsibility for executing a successful carve-out. Whilst the vendor is no longer invested in the carved-out business they play a critical role in ensuring its future success, so establishing and maintaining a good relationship is key to a successful transition. Alongside this is the need to hire in specialist skills, investing in a strong team of interims who can manage complex transformational tasks, with specific skill sets and not just BAU backgrounds.

James Hayward

“ Critical to a successful separation is the setting up of an effective programme management office with an appropriate governance structure signed off by vendor and buyer.

”

Tom: What are the key steps taken to ensure the accuracy and completeness of financial data during a separation?

Jerome: The big concern is the evaluation of the TSAs versus what would be needed on a stand-alone. It goes beyond the negotiation of all the services rendered and includes taxes, profit sharing, goodwill. A strong analysis of all these flows is important to make sure the historical data are well understood to have a clean slate of historical data to project budget and future costs / requirements.

James: The key challenge here is that the ownership and responsibility for the accounts may well be split between the vendor and the new business during the TSA period and their interests diverge. So, there is a pressing need to align the time lines and reporting times between both parties, and ensure resources are balanced across both businesses prior to separation. Cash flow reporting is particularly important, as well as ensuring that master data is managed appropriately (if not, it will come back and bite you).

Tom: How can you manage stakeholder communication, especially with investors, during the carve-out process? And how does that different from a typical ‘LBO/ MBO’ transaction.

Jerome: I think that the stakeholder communication is very similar. Having a good grasp on cash and EBITDA projections is key to reassure stakeholders and remains true in all contexts. It does, however, rely on the strategic roadmap which is always difficult to stabilize in a M&A transaction, whatever nature it is.

James: Stakeholder management for a typical LBO/MBO transaction is not that dissimilar for a carve-out e.g.. move to PE ownership with the focus on delivering the investment thesis.

Carve outs, though, have the added dimension of migrating away from the old parent and the need to manage a transition programme (could be 50+ interims) over the short term. On completion the immediate focus of the business is on the execution of this plan to deliver a platform for the business to deliver the longer term objectives of the investment thesis.

The cadence of stakeholder communication and the reporting cycle, specifically relating to the progress of the separation plan, is one of the key objectives that should be signed off at the planning stage.

Tom: Looking back, what would you say are the most critical factors that contributed to the success (or challenges) of a carve-out you’ve been involved in?

Jerome: Especially in a SaaS business, the most critical factor is HR. We have to embark on a journey and create a brand new team with a brand new story. Legacy people could be either reluctant or enthusiastic to go for the new challenge. Unfortunately, there is also an identification process of who fits the new challenge and who can add value to the transition process.

The other critical factors are IT, Data and Cost; the price tag on the required investment that can bear too much pressure on the EBITDA and cash.

James: Good Governance, good communication (internal and external stakeholders) and people resourcing (don’t skimp), make decisions quickly, delegate to subject matter experts and don’t be afraid of mistakes (you won’t get every decision right, but if seven out of ten are right you will move forward and make progress).

Build as strong a relationship as possible with the vendor and don’t try to build Rome in a day.

Jerome Arnaud

“ Having a good grasp on cash and EBITDA projections is key to reassure stakeholders through what can be a complicated process.

”

(Image: ‘Navigating The Tricky Waters’. Representation image designed for The Global Report).

Tom: What advice would you give to other CFOs who are about to embark on a similar carve-out process?

Jerome: For a standard M&A transaction, a CFO embarking in a carve-out process has a tremendous advantage. The review of the TSAs, the build-up process of the new strategy, the attention of all stakeholders on each side of the new company being created, & all these work streams give the availability of a lot of data and the awareness of everybody on its necessary reliability. On the other hand, there is a business going on, teams to manage, and support functions to develop. My advice is to dedicate time to the continuity of the operations. It’s important to keep the show running but also to stay close to the reality of the project in hand. It is vital not to forget to run the BAU efficiently.

On the other hand, there is a business going on, teams to manage, and support functions to develop. My advice is to dedicate time to the continuity of the operations. It’s important to keep the show running but also to stay close to the reality of the project in hand.

It is vital to maintain the role of CFO and not forget to run the BAU efficiently.

James: From ‘day one’ don’t take your eye off the commercials, remember to run the business properly. The carve out should take place alongside running the business successfully:

1/ Make sure the business has a good budget for resource / people who can deliver.

2/ Get management reporting / flash reporting sorted asap

3/ Change can be very unsettling so winning hearts and minds of management and employees is key.

4/ Communication with stakeholders and managing expectations is crucial. Pragmatism and driving through compromises is a key art to master.

5/ People, technology, and handling complex tasks are the usually biggest challenges.

6/ Plan early, hire early and ensure a strong governance framework is in place.

In summary, the key objective for the CFO, in the transition stage of a carve-out, is to successfully separate the ERP and financial systems, ensure data is accurate, and manage resources whilst keeping the business running smoothly. Overall, it’s important to balance the carve-out process with day-to-day operations to ensure longterm success.

More information on carve-outs:

Offering a practice specific focus on carve-outs and interim appointments, Camino Search has delivered ‘carve-out’ support both across C-suite, modelling and transformation hiring in the UK, France, Germany and Spain this year and continues to provide exceptional support to Private Equity investors undertaking complex projects. For more information, contact, Tom Garratt: tom@caminosearch.co.uk.

Exploring

LEADERSHIP JOURNEYS

Exploring CFO leadership journeys; from moving out of practice, to growing international finance functions.

Section References

Lesson Learnt Scaling International Finance Functions

Benyam Hagos, Chief Financial Officer, Form3.....................60

The Unconventional Journey Into Finance Leadership

Amit Lakhani, Chief Financial Officer, Omaze........................68

Benyam Hagos Chief Financial Officer, Form3 IN CONVERSATION

Financial Leadership Journeys

LESSONS LEARNT SCALING INTERNATIONAL FINANCE FUNCTIONS

Form 3’s Chief Financial Officer, Benyam Hagos, shares his most valuable career lessons learnt; including why he decided to stay in practice after qualifying to ensure he gained international experience, what he learnt scaling international finance functions in the corporate world and his experiences of taking on the operations function.

The New York move, for me, was pivotal in my career decision. ”

“The beginnings of my international experience at PwC and the decision to broaden my network and skill set in practice” It was a big decision for me to move to New York. I spent three years there working on PwC’s largest global client and a huge part of that was to experience a new culture, a new environment, work with new people and to understand what it was like to work abroad. This gave me the opportunity to build a network in the USA and meet key contacts there. I had made a major career decision to not leave practice immediately.

I spent 12 years at PwC and effectively I ‘grew up’ in a ‘Big Four’ environment. So, when I eventually made the decision to move into industry, it was a big decision for me to leave and change my career trajectory.

I went from thinking I was going to be a partner at PWC, to then moving to a place that I wanted to go to, in the Fintech sector and continue to develop my career. A lot of people move out of practice in, or around qualifying and at the time of finishing professional qualifications. When I was about three years into my time at PwC, I felt I wasn’t ready to move. I felt that I had learned a lot by working with financial services brands like Barclays but I knew that I wasn’t really ready to go out and push my career in industry. I knew there were people that had left at a similar period in their career and the roles that they took were really not what would excite me. In truth, I felt there were too many people leaving the ‘Big Four’ at that stage in their career and I would just be ‘someone else’ as a ‘standard CV’ that people see when they recruited into their business. With this in mind, I wanted to make sure that I stood out from the pack by doing a secondment, undertaking a different experience, so that when I did leave practice my CV looked different to the thousands of people that joined

the Big Four every year. I felt that I needed to differentiate myself, if I wanted to reach higher positions.

The New York move at PwC was pivotal in my career decision - It wasn’t going to be anywhere else. I wanted to make sure I worked with a USheadquartered client. When I was there, I had JP Morgan as my main client and I pushed myself towards those types of clients knowing that would build my knowledge of US GAAP and my knowledge of US reporting would benefit me and enable me to launch a career in the USA. When the opportunity arose to go to New York with PwC and I got ‘the call’ to confirm that the role was there for me if I chose to move, I did.

“From Practice to Industry: Scaling an International Function”

After practice I moved into an international finance function.

I needed to make sure I had people in each location who could really lead the region and the different areas with responsibility so I could tap into their local knowledge. I wanted to make sure I had someone in one of the countries who understood the local market.

For example, what you pitch as a benefit in the UK isn’t the same as what you pitch in Europe, so actually having somebody who understood what’s important to differentiate the brand in foreign markets was key to our growth and success.

Having local market leaders was essential but also having the technical knowledge in those areas was key.

I made time to go and sit with the team to understand where they would need support and also be present in the locality.

If you don’t do this it’s really hard for people to buy in to what you are trying to realise on behalf of the company.

When we looked to hire leaders in regional localities, we tried to hire people who understood the makeup of the company in that location and understood the regional market. This meant that a person’s own growth was not just restricted to regional ownership of a role but they were also obtaining the added benefit of growing internationally by learning about us and the other leaders across our other locations.

For example, they came to London, where they were able to grow their knowledge and skills by spending more time with us and then grew with the company.

From a company perspective we also grew our

brand in the respective local markets by having someone who understood the local market and spent time driving growth locally.

We tried to do it both ways by hiring people who wanted to become more international but who managed and dealt with their own market successfully.

The business took the benefits from their knowledge and they took the benefits from us to try and grow as regional leads.

“The Challenges Of International Growth”

Cost is a big one. When you look at costs across the business, it’s about asking; ‘are we spending the right amount of money in each location and are we getting the benefits that we expect from that regional investment?’

For example at Nium [where Benyam was Europe and Middle East Chief Operating Officer in 2023], we were looking at opening a European office but we were assessing different countries that we could look at.

We assessed different benefits of working within the regions, such as quality of the workforce, or the view of the regulator. When you take into account trying to hire tech people or sales people, they’re not always in the right markets.

The decision is never binary; none of the criteria that you look at says ‘it has to be this one country’.

So you have to balance everything together and come up with an appropriate view, which does take a lot of time and importantly, can and does create a lot of cost.

You need to make sure you’re really building out in the right way.

The other side to that is knowing when to stop and knowing when you’ve invested so much time in something, that it’s not going to work as you want it to.

Sometimes the best decision is to pull back –but do this in an empathetic way - especially for the regional employees. Sometimes you need to explain to the regional employees that the business has tried to be successful in the market and it is has invested in the market but unfortunately, it’s not going to deliver what is expected.

With the market now and there being a number of redundancies, it’s important to make sure the business is focussed and assessing the cost of being in different locations at the right time. Knowing when to leave a region typically comes from a revenue and pipeline perspective, where analysis suggests that the product or service

“

When you look at costs across the business, it’s about asking; ‘are we spending the right amount of money in each location and are we getting the benefits that we expect from that regional investment? ”

doesn’t fit the market and won’t return the investment.

“Experiencing Pain Points or growth and mergers”

The pain-points are, almost through every M&A, the cultural differences of taking something through a merger as a globallybacked unicorn and taking that business and buying a European-wide business, backed in a very different way, run in a very different way and trying to bring the cultures together. To actually imagine the company can work as one, is very, very difficult when you’re taking a company that, for example, might have been built out of university, built in a strong way with a strong vision. Then trying to put the rocket-ship behind it, to grow in line with wider growth aspirations.

That seemed really, really, difficult. But that does take a lot of time and particularly, takes a lot of time from the people, because when you go through an M&A activity it’s important to remember, not everybody signed up for that journey.

Some people joined the company - that we’ve acquired - to be part of that business as it was. Some people didn’t want to be part of a global-based business that wanted to grow, they were happy with where they were and how things were. The natural result is people churn; you’re going to see some movement of people and that’s fine but it’s part of understanding where you are as a business. This was really. But the business will move beyond it.

THE CAREER TRAJECTORY

Benyam Hagos, Form3

2023/ NOW Chief Financial Officer Form3

2021/ 2023 VP, Finance (Europe) to Chief Operating Officer Nium

2021/ 2023 Chief Financial Officer Ixaris

2008/ 2019 Director, UK Controller Mastercard 2019/ 2021

Associate to Senior Manager (UK) including Manager to Senior Manager, (NY), PwC

The goal is to move through the M&A activity and focus on what could happen in the future.

” “

they do it is by having broader roles, it was a no-brainer for me to broaden responsibility in a business that I was enjoying.

It was key for me to understand the support structure that I would have beneath me and the network that I would use to be successful but I learned huge amounts and that was what I did for the majority of my time at Nium.

For example, where Nium is now, seeing the business growing, seeing the revenue doing well and people getting promoted and people moving up; that’s what you want to see happening. Nium is in a great place. The goal is to move through the M&A activity and focus on what could happen in the future.

“Growing My Skills: Stepping Out Of Finance and Into Operations”

When you go into a big corporate-type business there’s often opportunity to work across geographies. At PwC, I worked across different teams but when you are in a role where mine was global - actually, all across Europe and Middle East - you do have to build relationships with the same people who stay in the roles for a long time.

So where as, in the Big Four, people rotate as they get promoted or move to different markets, in a corporate, in my experience, you don’t have that, so you really have to doubledown on building those relationships to go out to locations to be visible at the ‘off-sites’. If you’re going to be successful in a corporate, where people sit in roles for a bit longer, you really have to spend the time with people to understand what helps them, and then as you deliver they will help you through the appraisal process, through the promotion process, if people start to know what you stand for and what you can deliver.

I sat down with the head of Europe at the time, [at Nium] and he told me I was going to be COO. There wasn’t really an interview process, it was more like; ‘we think you can do the role, we think you can do really well and we think you can drive the region. We want you to do this role!’

I had completed my ACA but I wasn’t a COO. I knew I would have to learn a lot of how to grow into a COO role. I knew that there were a lot of other roles that would report into me and I wouldn’t be the specialist in the room. I was a finance person.

Being the person that I am, wanting to drive and grow; I thought ‘why not’?!

If you look at the market at the moment, you see a lot of CFOs becoming CEOs and the way

It was key for me in my career, and even more now, that I have a broader understanding of how I think a Fintech could grow and work in the market. It was a challenge, it was really hard and I had a lot of support to get there and I think it was a really successful role while I was doing it.

If you’re the CFO, you are the specialist, you’re working with a manager above you - or maybe another finance person.

As a CFO, you live and breathe the numbers and that’s where you spend your time. When you’re a COO, your role is much broader, you have to be able to work with the other functions, knowing that they are specialists and you’re not. Your skills change from needing to drive the conversation, from saying things like: ‘I think we need to do things like this’, to listening to what the other people can bring into the room; whether that’s compliance, HR, sales, or whatever else.

As COO I realised I had to help people, to empower them, to push their own agenda forward. I learned to be very humble, to listen and to make sure I had the right leaders in that group who can help pull in with me.

It’s a much harder job when you have got to lead cross-functionally and try and work with the CEO of the region as I did, to bring the business forward. You are not directly responsible for everything, so you have to work with the group cross functionally to deliver the objectives and this can be more difficult.

I knew I would have to learn a lot of how to grow into a COO role. I wouldn’t be the specialist in the room. ” “

Focus on two things that can actually move the company forward. ” “

have to reinvest to be able to bring yourself up to the next stage of growth. That is a very normal thing to do, it just says that for us as a business we have to respond and grow with the new targets.

“Into the future”

“Making time for people”

I focussed on having time in my day to work through different parts of everyone’s role and understanding what people were doing - but not trying to spend all of my time doing that. I knew I needed to make sure I had enough time in my day to understand where the other departments were, rather than making snap decisions without having done the research, so I tried to really have time in my calendar to make sure I could do that.

This is very difficult when you have got a number of different people and you’re still doing your existing role at the same time – but that’s why you need a team beneath you to support you and you need the leadership group to understand your priorities and what you’re working on to make sure you are focussing on the right things.

“A Path To IPO”

I joined Form3 in December 2023. We’ve done two big things that I would say we’ve achieved in the last eight or nine months as a business, including going to market to raise funds. In a market where it’s very difficult to be able to do that is something to be proud of. You can have a hundred investor conversations to do that but to try and close some across big organisations is very difficult.

We’ve done very, very well to close fundraising and off the back of that I’ve built some very, very good relationships with new investors, the board and trying to bring the company forward. That funding for me has been a huge, huge thing for our business and a duty for me personally to make sure that we set ourselves up for success and we have a chance of growing into what we want as a business.

And off the back of fundraising we’ve also restructured our business to bring down ‘cash burn’. That’s a natural thing as we grow in this business, as we need to have a sustainable business model while keeping our costs in the right place, that’s something that happens and is very common across the market but its set ourselves up to invest in the right areas. It’s normal that companies go through these stages in their growth, when companies are postseries C, pushing towards IPO, it’s important to consider and action restructure because you

We’ve worked really, really hard to put our business in the best place we can do at the moment. Going forward the biggest challenge is not deviating off that course, and it’s understanding that we need to understand the revenue that we want and the cost position we want to be in along with the opportunity that we have.

Over the next six-to-12 months, I’ll be focussed on delivering what we have got on our roadmap and not get distracted by other things that we could be doing in the market because that won’t help us. We need to be able to deliver the things we have committed to the board, the company and to the people as that will make us successful, because we need now to start looking past a series-C and to what the future of the business looks like.

“Always Focus On Business Critical Items”

What I try to do and focus on when I’m sitting down with the CEO and those around me, is to focus upon two things that can actually move the company forward in a quarter, or within a six month period.

These are the items that actually are impactful – and deliver those two things, because I think it’s very hard to focus on the things that matter in a day job where you’re, perhaps working with a huge team, with many other things you can do. You can lose track on what’s important.

So what I try to do, is agree with my leaders; ‘what are the two things I need to deliver in this quarter, or six months? Are they really impactful? Then I make sure I deliver them. That doesn’t mean that I’m not doing anything else, it doesn’t mean I’m not focussing on anything else, it just means they are top of my list every morning when I come in.

That’s to do the things I have agreed with my leaders, or the board.

I think that’s important because you can struggle to get through the day as there are so many things to do, everything is beeping at you, everyone is calling you but you need to focus on things that actually matter, otherwise you get to the end of the year and you have a disappointing conversation with your boss where you haven’t really delivered what they need you to do.

That’s the big thing, what the business needs you to do, rather than what you think is relevant, that’s really important.

Financial Leadership Journeys

AN ‘UNCONVENTIONAL JOURNEY’ INTO FINANCE LEADERSHIP

Amit Lakhani, Chief Financial Officer at entertainment company, Omaze, talks candidly to Camino Search’s Mariola Bonnici, about his somewhat unique career pathway to becoming a Chief Financial Officer and why this alternative approach has fuelled elements of his hiring and decision-making at Omaze.

Asking the questions: Mariola Bonnici, Head of Practice for C-1 appointments, Camino Search (pictured right), with Omaze’s CFO, Amit Lakhani, pictured, far page.

IN CONVERSATION

Amit Lakhani

Chief Financial Officer at ‘for-profit’ charity fundraising company, Omaze

THE BUSINESS

OMAZE

Omaze is an entertainment company with a social purpose that raises new and significant sums of money for charities through its innovative Omaze Million Pound House Draw –where entrants get the chance to win guaranteed prizes such as stunning multi-million-pound houses every month, whilst also supporting incredible causes.

Since launching in the UK in 2020, Omaze has raised over £60 million for some of the biggest and most loved charities in the country including Teenage Cancer trust, British Heart Foundation, Marie Curie, Alzheimer’s Research, the NSPCC and more.

Amit Lakhani joined Omaze as International Finance Director in 2021, rising to CFO in 2023, after career moves which have included working in analytics and investments.

Omaze has raised more than £60m for a variety of UK charities since it arrived in the UK from the USA, in 2020.

Omaze runs a variety of prize draws offering entrants the chance to win multi-million-pound houses every month in prime real estate areas such as Dorset, The Cotswolds or Yorkshire

Mariola Bonnici (MB): To frame the article, could you provide context on yourself and your career so far?

Amit Lakhani (AL): I completed a degree in economics and stats from UCL in 2014. I left that not knowing what I wanted to do. There was a lot of pressure to go down the banking route, which is ‘classic’ after that kind of degree. I hated the idea of being a banker and being in that environment; I don’t think it would have suited me particularly well, but I had zero idea what I wanted to do.

I’ve been in wealth management, investment management and data analytics*. I’ve explored different roles that gave me a chance to realise what I don’t want to do, which was the passive investment management and the wealth management route. I imagine investments will be in my future at some point, but not now.

The wealth management side just felt like making richer people slightly richer. It didn’t feel very impactful.

Data really got my juices flowing and I actually found it quite fun. I started seeing how customers work, and then being able to bring that to the finance team was where it clicked for me, and I discovered that I can actually do something with this information and move meaningful numbers to have real impact. So that’s where I started.

Then I ended up in a lottery company called ZEAL Network, working in their venture arm, which I never thought I would do as I had never really been excited by the venture side but it was the right place, right time, and the right people to work with. They offered me a great opportunity and everything else has flowed from that – including where I met Omaze.

I was actually meant to be a dentist, but I realised just when I was applying for university that I just couldn’t do it. It’s somebody else’s dream. It’s not mine. I can get bored easily - so the idea of not having something that’s constantly changing, just didn’t work for me. We spend most of our time working, so we should try to do stuff that we love doing. I love investing. I love seeing if I can make businesses better and thinking about businesses. That’s the fun stuff for me.

*View a digest of Amit’s career path on P75

Data really got my juices flowing and I actually found it quite fun. I started seeing how customers work, and then being able to bring that to the finance team was where it clicked for me...

You have to realise that you spend more of your time working than anything else. If you’re not doing something you love, it’s going to be painful, and if you’re going to do that for 40 years, it’s going to be depressing at some point.

(MB): What appealed to you about a datadriven approach, and how did it influence your outlook?

(AL): I’ve done the investment piece, the fund management piece, the wealth management piece - and even in my personal life, I’ve worked with investments, but it’s always looking topdown at a company. When I took my first data role, it was very much looking at what’s actually happening, going deep down to the customer level and then going back upwards. It’s nice to be able to match that bottomup, with the top-down investment logic to understand what’s actually happening; what are these customers doing and how are they behaving? That’s how you have impact on the top line numbers, by having impact all the way down to that bottom level of customerby-customer; the 100 customers, the 1,000 customers.

It felt like everything clicked and I understood the business model, in a sense, from end-toend. You can see things you tested, things you did, you see what they do and then you can compound that up and say, ‘what could they do on the top line in the future if you keep rolling this out’? I really liked the way it clicked in my head and worked my ‘statistics side’ which was fun.

Mariola Bonnici (MB): How have your early experiences shaped where you are today? (AL): Try different things before you commit to something. So many of us are forced to just pick the first thing - that’s your life, your career, and then you just have to stick to it. You have to realise that you spend more of your time working than anything else. If you’re not doing something you love, it’s going to be painful, and if you’re going to do that for 40 years, it’s going to be depressing at some point. In the first data analyst role I was made redundant after three months. I knew it was coming because I was in the numbers, they couldn’t afford to pay me, even though I was probably the cheapest person in the room. So, when I approach things now, I’m very open to what happens next. I’m always open to interesting things and to the hard decisions that you need to make in terms of your career and the business, someone has to, and it’s too easy to shirk that responsibility.

I was lucky to realise early on that a business isn’t just this thing that employs people, it has to work, it has to make money, it has to make sense. You have to make tough decisions sometimes. It’s all nice having a job, but if the business doesn’t work, you don’t actually have a job.

(MB) Mariola: You mentioned initially saying no to the field you’re in today but later changing your mind. What influenced that shift?

(AL): After university, I had four different jobs. There was the natural thought around the impression that I might be ‘job-hopping’, asking myself the question ‘have I shown that I can stick at something’?

I was scared of doing another move and it was too soon to get to job number five. I had a safe route in the finance team I was working in, I could do an accounting qualification - it was a safe set up. I thought to myself, ‘there’s a path here, it’s concrete, it’s safe, and it’s comfortable’. I was concerned about moving jobs again, thinking to myself, ‘what if it doesn’t work out? How will that look on my CV’?

And it was the person that hired me, an old colleague and manager at the time - and mentor now - he just didn’t take no for an answer. When you reflect on these things, all these little moments, if I said no, where would I be now? Your life changes by these little decisions you make. But he had this gut feeling that it was the right place for me. I realised being scared wasn’t a good enough reason to say ‘no’.

(MB): What would you say were the key lessons learned along the way?

(AL): I’ve learnt a lot, especially around making decisions in the sense that so many people are looking for someone else to make the decision. I’m one of those people that feels very comfortable making decisions and taking the risk that comes with that. On my head, be it. I’m totally happy with that. Decision making is a superpower, and can actually get you very far, very quickly.

My most recent learning - which is the most exciting one to me - is it’s just all about the people. It’s amazing when you’re able to find a great group of people that you can do incredible things with and have so much fun while doing it. And that’s relatively new for me, because I’d not managed a team until two years ago, a year after I started at Omaze, and I now have a wonderful team. I love working with them, and it just makes everything fun, even when it’s tough.

Featured: A different kind of fundraising. Amit with representatives from the Holt Youth Project (Norfolk UK), which is an example of one of the organisations which has benefited from Omaze’s work.

(Photo: Omaze)

Lakhani, Omaze

I’m probably one of those people that doesn’t have the right CV to do the role I’m doing, but judge me by my results. ” “

(MB) Has this influenced the business strategy at Omaze?

(AL): Business strategy is one of those things where people typically think that those leading a business have all the answers, and they have this grand vision for the next eight years where they know exactly what’s going to happen. They don’t. You do the best that you can with the information you have. So, you try and plan for things - you try and think of a goal, and a plan to get there but you don’t have all the details and you have no idea if it’ll be right. The one thing you do know is that the business must come first.

The business needs to work, it needs to make money, it needs to be sustainable, it needs to be able to pay its own way and grow; everything else comes after that and that’s before all the shocks that come up. And then there’s the hiring of great people.

One of the virtues we have at Omaze is championing ‘outsiders’. People don’t always have the perfect CVs or the right companies on them, but we try and hire smart people with the right attitude and give them the opportunity to do something amazing, and they usually do. That’s something I really care about. I’m one of those people that probably doesn’t have the right CV to do the role I’m doing but judge me by my results.

MB): How have these experiences shaped the way you’ve built your team?

AL): The reason I wanted to ‘do’ finance was to prove what finance could do. I wanted to prove that you can take the tools of finance and apply that to growth, becoming an engine of growth in the company - that’s been the way we’ve operated over the last couple of years. We don’t look at things as fixed month-tomonth budgets that someone else is responsible for because it’s not that easy to break these things up in that way. You have to think about these things across the years, especially if you’re building something that is subscriptionled. It’s a long run retention led business that you’re thinking about over decades. Having the tools of finance, which is the money and being able to deploy it efficiently and effectively, has given us an edge. That’s how we try and approach finance to make decisions. It’s not about cutting spend. It’s about spending more, but spending it efficiently, effectively and growing as fast as we can make possible. Analytics is another superpower for that. ‘How do you get the data and respond to that really fast?’ We can make those decisions instantly. You don’t have to go through hierarchy and silos, you just have that connected into finance. Information comes in, money goes out. From the HR perspective we focus on how we can make sure we hire amazing people and keep the people we have happy and excited and motivated because if they don’t do stuff, things don’t happen.

We have 50-ish people at Omaze, so if someone doesn’t do something, it just doesn’t happen.

(MB): How did you overcome career roadblocks to reach where you are today?

(AL): The hiring experience has been the biggest thing, and then learning how to hire well in functions that I haven’t typically operated myself. Camino Search has helped a lot on that; once you do find the right people, they’re able to just run far ahead of you. Everyone in my team is much smarter than I am at what they do. They know what they’re doing. They’re able to do it without management and little oversight. They’re motivated to do it because they’re excited about what we’re trying to do, not just at the company, but also in our functions.

We’re trying to prove what you can do in these functions that are typically seen as back office or service functions. That’s exciting to me. I care about that, and I think the team care about that. It is about finding the right people and then they’ll call you if they need help; that’s how we like to operate - it changes everything.

(MB): What do you find most inspirational about the abilities of the people around you?

(AL): I’d go back to the point I made about championing outsiders. Everyone has a unique perspective. ‘What everyone else does’ is not a phrase I like to hear - it depresses me rather than excites me. I like to think ‘what is our problem and what’s the best way to solve that’? And that’s why having this kind of person really helps.

They’re able to come up with much better ideas than you, a much more diverse range of ideas. But everyone knows once we decide on an idea, we get on with it and deliver. We have to make a call at some point.

My team inspires me all the time. They are super smart, and it makes me very proud to be part of their journey while they’re learning how to do this, coming from more traditional backgrounds and then going into entrepreneurial work in their functions, which are not normally seen as entrepreneurial.

I have different periods of either do I think too big? Do I think too small? Right now, I’m in a phase of I get to think lots of big stuff and I have a team that is great at getting stuff done, giving me the space to do that.

(MB): Looking over your career, what key lessons have you learned, and how have you applied them to Omaze’s current success?

(AL): When I joined Omaze we needed to make Omaze sustainable and able to stand on its own two feet. It was business first and we needed to sort the foundations. It was necessary and a ‘do whatever it takes’ attitude to get there. Once you do that, you’ve got the space to then think bigger, to explore and be bolder. But until then, you’re just chasing a constant cycle of pitch decks and fundraising which is great, but it’s just not the business.

You need to run the business - that’s what you need to do. The number one lesson is the learning from when I got made redundant in one of those early jobs - the business needs to work. That is priority one. Then everything else comes from that. And to do that, the second lesson is that you need to make decisions quickly and you need people to take accountability and be comfortable taking accountability for those. And if you can’t, things just don’t move - things are slow and broken. And finally, the third lesson is to have fun with the people you work with which is something we constantly strive for. This makes all the tough times worth it.

Everyone has a unique perspective. ‘What everyone else does’ is not a phrase I like to hear - it depresses me rather than excites me. ” “

Camino Search would like to thank Amit Lakhani and the Omaze PR team for their insights and contributions into this article. Article written in collaboration with Lauren Andrews, Camino Search.

Mitigating

GENERATION RISK

From mitigating the risks of natural disasters to AI security; The Global Report invites insights from two unique ventures, established to cater for and protect businesses against the evolving landscape of modern threats.

(Image: ‘Envisaging The Summit’. Representation image designed for The Global Report).

Section References

What Organisations Need to Know To Inspire Trust in AI

Steve Berg and Lucas Nelson, Lytical Ventures.....................80

Re-Imagining The Risk Transfer Chain

Dr Henri Winand and Dennis Mahoney, AkinovA...................86

GENERATION RISK

NEED TO KNOW

TO INSPIRE TRUST IN

AI. WHAT ORGANISATIONS

With the advent of AI becoming more and more integrated into the business system landscape, New York-based Lytical Ventures’ Steve Berg and Lucas Nelson introduce the concepts of what businesses should consider to safely embed AI into the tech stack.

THE CONtribuTORS

Lytical Ventures is a New York City-based venture capital firm investing in Enterprise Intelligence, comprising cyber security, data analytics, and artificial intelligence.

Whilst machine learning has been a viable investment area for over a decade, the current AI revolution— sparked on November 30, 2022, by the broad availability of tools like ChatGPT—has highlighted a new and intriguing overlap between cyber security and AI.

Respectful of the rapid pace of technological change, there are three critical areas we believe are most relevant right now:

Data Provenance: Ensuring that the data used by AI is trustworthy.

AI Protection:

AI represents a new attack surface, requiring novel cybersecurity solutions.

AI Compliance: CISOs need a comprehensive understanding of how AI is being utilized within their organizations, akin to their approach to shadow IT.

At the core of these concerns is trust. For organizations to feel comfortable implementing AI-driven processes or products, they need to trust that their systems can securely ingest inputs and deliver reliable outputs.

LUCAS NELSON Partner

STEVE BERG Partner

New technologies invariably introduce new vulnerabilities, and modern LLMs are no exception. The development of methods to attack AI systems has progressed alongside their creation. ”

Data Provenance

The quality of an AI model is directly tied to the quality of the data it’s trained on.

In benign cases, models trained on poor data might produce faithful but not useful or reliable results.

In more malicious scenarios, attackers could manipulate AI models by injecting corrupted data, leading to harmful or incorrect outputs.

To mitigate these risks, AI developers must track their data sources to ensure their datasets haven’t been tampered with.

The risk of amplifying bad data is growing with the massive datasets required for training modern Large Language Models (LLMs) and the increasing reliance on synthetic data.

This makes it critical for companies to monitor the origins of their data to prevent adversarial influence.

When organizations can confidently verify the source, history, and quality of their data, they’ve achieved a key element of the trust equation.

AI Protection

New technologies invariably introduce new vulnerabilities, and modern LLMs are no exception. The development of methods to attack AI systems has progressed alongside their creation. A 2024 survey conducted by Splunk reveals that security professionals are split, with 45% believing modern LLMs will benefit adversaries more while 43% indicate LLMs will benefit defenders more.

Research has already identified several key threats, including:

Prompt Injection: Crafting queries that make the model reveal sensitive information or produce harmful outputs.

Model Poisoning: Inserting data that alters the model’s behaviour, leading to incorrect responses.

Worms: Queries that propagate themselves, creating harmful loops.

Model Theft: Using strategic queries to replicate an AI model, circumventing the cost of training the original.

These scenarios highlight the need for robust protections for AI models. Protecting intellectual property is crucial for financial sustainability, and ensuring that models are not exploited as attack vectors is vital for reducing potential legal liabilities. If an organization cannot secure its models, the integrity of its outputs is compromised, regardless of the quality of its data.

” “

For organizations to feel comfortable implementing AI-driven processes or products, they need to trust that their systems can securely ingest inputs and deliver reliable outputs.

AI Compliance

(And the need for AI Dashboards)

In cyber security, SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) systems provide a “single pane of glass” to monitor security incidents. A similar tool is needed for AI to track model usage across an organization.

Moreover, the security team must have visibility into data flows to prevent sensitive information from being sent to insecure AI platforms. 91% of security teams have adopted some form of public AI but 34% lack a comprehensive AI compliance policy. That’s a problem. A SIEM-like tool would enable IT teams to avoid redundant AI systems and help ensure compliance.

While Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools have existed for decades, they can be cumbersome because they require exhaustive data classification. With AI, the potential exists to improve classification accuracy, but the key concern remains ensuring that sensitive data is not inadvertently exposed to AI systems that might use it for training.

About Lytical Ventures

That would explain why 49% of security professionals listed data leakage as a chief concern regarding their companies’ usage of AI.

From a governance perspective, reducing shadow IT and gaining insight into how AI tools are being used is imperative for establishing trust within the ecosystem. Without visibility into internal operations— whether it’s monitoring datasets, third-party AI vulnerabilities, or enterprise app updates— organizations remain vulnerable to significant risks.

To Conclude

The intersections between machine learning and cyber security will continue to grow in importance. We believe that technology cannot advance without trust—trust from developers and trust from users. For this reason, we are focusing on securing data, protecting AI models, and developing the tools necessary for organizations to maintain transparency and control over their AI systems.

Based in New York, USA, Lytical Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in cyber security, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Lytical’s professionals have decades of experience in direct investing generally, and in Enterprise Intelligence specifically. Lytical Ventures was founded to identify and partner with passionate, barrier-breaking entrepreneurs, enabling the establishment and fast scaling of novel, differentiated, value-adding companies. The firm is an affiliate of Lyrical Partners, which, with affiliates, manages over $10 billion in private equity, real estate, traditional equity, venture, and hedge funds.

Contributing

Experts:

Dr Henri Winand, CEO of AkinovA and Dennis Mahoney, CCO of AkinovA.

GENERATION RISK

RE-IMAGINING THE RISK TRANSFER CHAIN

In the wake of growing risks from cyber attacks and an increasing volume of natural disasters, guest contributors Dr Henri Winand and Dennis Mahoney from risk transfer platform serving high-quality multinationals, AkinovA, rethink the approach in which private equity portfolio companies can insure against value destruction.

This article is being penned as Hurricane Milton is about to strike Florida, only a few weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated several states, leaving behind billions of dollars in damage. These catastrophic events further erode the insurance capital base, worsening the gap between insured losses and actual economic losses.

CFOs, treasurers, and private equity executives now find themselves in an uncomfortable position, having to manage a growing number of new and evolving risks that hit their balance sheets. The plethora of new, rapidly evolving risks which could hit their balance sheets, from climate change to cyber threats, leaves them grappling with fundamental questions: how can these risks be shared, with whom, at what cost, and how can they achieve this without locking up precious capital that could be deployed elsewhere?

There is a delicate balance at play here between minimizing earnings-per-share (EPS) volatility caused by insurable exposures and maintaining capital efficiency. One logical solution for corporates is self-insurance through captives, a long-term trend that has accelerated in recent years. While self-insuring through captives is a logical step for many multinationals, the challenge lies in how to underwrite increasingly complex risks without undermining the company’s broader financial strategy.

As the scale and scope of risk continues to expand, so too, does the challenge of finding the capital needed to cover those exposures. More importantly, how can businesses share some of these risks with the insurance industry while simultaneously tapping into the capital markets more directly and at scale?

The answer requires a re-imagination of the risk

Natural disasters: A hurricane strikes the US coastline, as seen from space. The eye of the

storm is visible in the centre of the photo. (Picture credit: Pixabay).

transfer chain: a strategy that liberates capital locked within corporate captives, enabling them to do more with what they have and to collaborate more effectively with other corporates, insurance and investors. Only by rethinking how capital is deployed across the risk sharing value chain can we begin to bridge the insurance gap.

The Growing Insurance Gap

The insurance “gap” refers to the shortfall between what is insured and the actual economic losses that occur, particularly in the aftermath of catastrophic events. This gap has been growing steadily, fuelled by the rising frequency and severity of natural disasters, cyberattacks, and other emerging risks. According to Swiss Re, global economic losses from natural disasters alone exceeded $250 billion in 2022, with less than half of those losses covered by insurance. This problem is not limited to trillions of US dollars of physical assets. Today, more than 90% of the S&P 500’s value consists of intangible assets such as intellectual property, brands, and data that are significantly under-insured worth in excess of USD20Tn.

The challenge for corporates is clear: as risks grow and diversify, traditional insurance solutions are struggling to keep up or simply delivered too late to be meaningful for global businesses and large-scale asset owners. Despite generating income through premiums and investments, the industry faces structural limitations that prevent it from absorbing all the risks corporations face today. For instance, in the low-interest-rate environment of the past decade, investment returns have been insufficient to supplement underwriting profits. At the same time, insurers are increasingly cautious about the risks they are willing to underwrite leading to a hardening insurance market, characterized by higher premiums, tighter terms, and lack of capacity for covering new and complex risks.

Capital Constraints and Risk Sharing

The fundamental issue is that there simply isn’t enough capital in the re/insurance industry to underwrite the risks that corporates face today. Despite re-insurers experiencing some of the best returns since the early 1990s, there has been no significant influx of new capital into the market.

The result is that high-quality multinationals are increasingly self-insuring through captives, which helps to a degree, but leaves them exposed to new forms of risk that captives alone cannot efficiently manage.

Multinationals are increasingly utilizing self-insurance to manage their exposures, yet they face serious limitations in terms of how much risk they can retain without keeping large

According to Swiss Re, global economic losses from natural disasters alone exceeded $250 billion in 2022, with less than half of those losses covered by insurance.

amounts of capital tied up in captives to underwrite certain risks. Whilst increasing the corporate’s control over its risk landscape, this approach locks up funds that could otherwise be invested in growth initiatives. It’s imperative to establish the right balance to remain capital efficient. Furthermore, captives don’t solve the broader issue of risk diversification. Without the ability to spread risks across industries, geographies, or sectors, corporates may find themselves overexposed to their own concentrated risks.

Therefore, the challenge for corporations is not just about sourcing capital but also about finding stable partners, whether in the insurance industry or the capital markets, that can help share these risks effectively.

Re-imagining the Risk Sharing Chain

To close the insurance gap, the corporate captives and the insurance industry must forge deeper connections with capital markets. Currently, insurance-linked securities (ILS) offer a partial solution by transferring certain types of risk, most notably property catastrophe risks, to investors in capital markets. The ILS market, which has grown to in excess of $100Bn in size, allows insurers to free up capital by offloading peak risks to institutional investors. But this market remains narrow in scope and largely inadequate for addressing the full spectrum of risks that corporates face.

The future of risk transfer lies in creating more comprehensive and scalable structures that allow corporations to directly access capital markets beyond traditional ILS instruments. This approach facilitates risk-sharing between high-quality multinationals, enabling them to assemble portfolios of diverse risks and access capital more directly, and at scale. One example of this evolution is AkinovA’s platform, which aims to revolutionize risk financing by providing a marketplace where corporations can transfer their risks more efficiently to both insurance carriers and capital markets.

AkinovA’s A1Policy™ product is designed to facilitate the pooling of corporate risks by underwriting the client, not the class, which can then be securitised and sold to investors.

This approach not only helps corporates share their risks but also unlocks capital that is currently trapped in captive structures.

Liberating Corporate Capital

For CFOs and treasurers, the question is not just how to manage risk but how to do so without eroding valuable capital that could be reinvested in the business.

For example, the AkinovA model offers a glimpse into how corporates can achieve this by collaborating with other companies to pool risks and access broader capital markets. By leveraging advanced data analytics and cloudbased technology, platforms like AkinovA create a more transparent and efficient marketplace for risk transfer. Major corporations can free up hundreds of millions of capital to underwrite new risks, reduce their insurance costs by millions and, ultimately, reinvest in growth.

A key advantage of these platforms is their ability to use data science and artificial intelligence to aggregate risks across multiple lines of business, geographies, and industries. This not only improves the pricing of risks but also makes it easier for capital markets investors to participate. The result is a shorter and more efficient path between risk originators—corporates—and capital providers, whether through securitization or other capital markets mechanisms .

The Road Ahead: From Risk Transfer to Risk Sharing at Scale

The insurance gap will not close without innovation. Corporations, insurers, and capital markets must collaborate more closely to develop scalable risk-sharing mechanisms that address the growing complexity of risks in today’s economy. Self-insurance and captives have their place, but they cannot be the only answer. The answer lies in re-imagining how risks are transferred and in building platforms that can unlock the full potential of capital markets.

For CFOs and private equity executives, the opportunity is clear. Those who embrace these new risk transfer solutions will manage their exposures more effectively and enhance their capital efficiency, unlocking valuable resources for growth. By connecting with the capital markets more directly and leveraging advanced technology platforms, corporations can liberate the capital they need to grow while managing their risks more effectively. Those who adopt these strategies will not only mitigate their exposure to emerging risks but also position themselves for long-term financial stability and success. The question is no longer whether businesses need to rethink how they manage risk, it’s how soon they can make it happen.

About AkinovA

AkinovA is a risk transfer platform serving high-quality multinationals.

For more information, visit: AKINOVA.com

THE EXPERTS

Before co-founding AkinovA with an insurance specialist fund manager, Henri grew a new energy technology firm globally to a USD 1bn IPO, 50X+ top line growth including work with Japanese, Indian, US, Singaporean and German firms with employees across US, UK, India, Singapore and Japan. Prior to this, he worked to commercialise new technologies at Rolls-Royce PLC, advised the UK Government on sustainability and resilience as part of the Green Economy Council, was a Board member and treasurer of the circa 50 strong industry group of a pan European €1.3Bn public/ private partnership to bring hydrogen technologies to market. He served on the Strategic Advisory Board of The Royce Institute which channels investments into UK R&D and materials technology.

Dennis was a senior officer at Aon. He acted as broker to some of the world’s largest companies. Since leaving as Chairman of Aon Global in 2010, Dennis has served on the Board of several brokers and PE firms advising on major re/insurance deals. He is a past President of the Insurance Institute of London. He was first Chairman of the World Insurance Network (now absorbed into ACORD of which he was a Director). Dennis has lived and worked in Bermuda since 2007.

Dr. Henri winand

Dennis Mahoney

The End

CLOSING VIEWS

Blick Rothenberg’s Chief Executive Officer shares his thoughts on how private equity is changing the accountancy sector. With an afterword and thanks from The Global Report’s creative editor Rob Andrews.

Section References

Long Overdue Disruption?

Nimesh Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Blick

Rothenberg.....................................................................................................92

Creative Editor’s Afterword and Thanks

Rob Andrews, Marketing Director, Camino Search.............98

LONG OVERDUE DISRUPTION?

Blick Rothenberg’s Chief Executive Officer, Nimesh Shah, highlights how private equity’s cash injection is evolving the accountancy sector.

NIMESH SHAH:

“The accountancy profession is going through its greatest revolution.

”I recently attended a conference for international accounting firms, and the opening remarks from the president of the association proclaimed that the ‘partnership model is dead’.

The accountancy profession is going through its greatest revolution - it has never experienced such significant disruption, with the increasing trend of private equity investment giving birth to new corporate giants. My own firm, Blick Rothenberg, now a part of the Azets Group, was a relative pioneer receiving private equity investment in 2016 from Hg Capital; it went through a successful reinvestment in 2023 led by PAI Partners and Hg Capital. The marriage of private equity and the accountancy profession has never been stronger.

There are now over 20 private equity consolidators in the UK accountancy market and around 10 in the US – given the relative size of the US market, the level of investment dwarfs anything in Europe despite private equity entering the market much later.

In the UK market, since Hg Capital invested in the Azets Group, Tenzing, exponent and Waterland have made investments into the accountancy sector, and new entrants are expected into the market in the forthcoming years. In the US, Towerbrook was the first major private equity firm to enter the market when it made its investment in EisnerAmper in 2021 –since then, New Mountain Capital, Apollo and Parthenon have all followed with their own investments and activity and levels interest remain high.

‘A

Flawed Business Model’

“The partner model is dead.” Historically, the partnership model in accounting firms relied heavily on a few senior partners who made key decisions and shared the profits. While this structure offered stability, there were several flaws.

Limited scalability – most partnerships struggled to scale operations effectively, and growth would be slow and new service lines and geographies were rarely explored because it would be difficult to have consensus between partners who had conflicting interests and priorities.

Investment was a second thought – investing now for tomorrow was a difficult barrier to overcome for a partnership, as partners close to retirement were naturally less interested to invest in something where they would not see any benefit. As a result, it is evident that the accountancy sector is behind in diversity, technology and automation, and the limited investment from partners for decades is now finally catching up.

Lack of flexibility – the partnership model can be rigid, as partners would focus on their individual clients and part of the business rather than the collective growth of the firm. The siloed approach holds back innovation and prevents the firm from responding quickly to market changes.

Succession – there is a generational shift happening in the accountancy profession, with many senior partners nearing retirement, and very few having a plan for succession.

If I were advising one of my clients on the appropriate business structure, it would be difficult to make a case for a partnership model which does little for creating long-term value and legacy.

Why Are Private Equity Investors So Interested?

Private equity investors have increasingly recognised the growth opportunity, and the potential for operational improvements has made the accountancy sector an attractive investment opportunity. From the perspective of private equity and target firm, the external investment is aimed at enhancing profitability through technology integration, driving automation and scaling growth through strategic M&A.

One private equity firm describes the accountancy sector as ‘defensive’ – every business needs an accountant and the regulation and global tax rules are only going one way, presenting an opportunity for the strategically capitalised firms to aggressively take market share from traditional firms that don’t cope well with investment and change.

Regulatory Considerations

The rise of private equity in the accounting sector raises important regulatory considerations, and the regulatory bodies have been watching the developments closely. With the natural increased focus on profitability and rapid expansion, questions arise about the potential impacts on service quality and ethical standards. So far, I’m not aware of any major investigations or judgement by the regulatory bodies involving a private equity backed accountancy firm – but this could be (sadly) only a matter of time.

The accountancy firms and regulatory bodies will need to find a common ground, which strikes the balance between the commercial drivers of the private equity investors, the accountancy firm itself and the interests of the public.

If I were advising one of my clients on the appropriate business structure, it would be difficult to make a case for a partnership model

“

Private equity investors have increasingly recognised the growth opportunity, and the potential for operational improvements has made the accountancy sector an attractive investment opportunity.

What About My Client? Where Next?

The demands of the client from their accountant are changing – the term “bookkeeper” is rarely used in the modern accountancy firm, and the client wants more than compliance and traditional accountancy services. The business of today and the future wants proactive advisory support, strategic insights and technological integration.

Technology is the key to unlocking value. Automation, artificial intelligence, and advanced data analytics should transform how an accountancy firm operates and deliver services.

The future talent joining the accountancy profession demands this as well – the accountancy graduate is not prepared to sit by the photocopier for days (as I once did) and they insist that technology replaces the routine administrative and compliance tasks which enables them to advise their clients.

This creates a perfect storm as today’s client is not prepared to pay a premium for a manual compliance service – but they will buy advice which enhances the value of their own business.

Private equity is transforming the accountancy industry in the UK and US – driving a new business model, forcing much needed technology enhancement and aiming to marry the very specific requirements of the current generation of talent and the demands of the modern entrepreneur.

For an industry that has been change resistant, the firms that will ultimately survive will be the ones that embrace innovation and enhance the modern client relationship, whilst effectively navigating the changing regulatory landscape.

I have long believed (and even before Blick Rothenberg’s own private equity investment) that the traditional partnership model in the accounting industry was on borrowed time. The introduction of private equity into accountancy has established a new business model, which I expect will be the norm by the turn of the decade.

Heavyweight firms including Grant Thornton, RSM and Forvis Mazars are all engaged in very recent global mega mergers – a strong endorsement that the traditional accountant is ready to invest and change.

Private equity has only scratched the surface, and the prize will be for the first firm that can truly globally connect, offering a technology enabled and global client service delivery platform.

Private equity is transforming the accountancy industry in the UK and US – driving a new business model, forcing much needed technology enhancement and aiming to marry the very specific requirements of the current generation of talent and the demands of the modern entrepreneur.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Nimesh Shah

Nimesh was appointed as CEO of Blick Rothenberg in August 2020, having joined the firm in 2012.

His background is in personal tax and he has had more than 15 years’ continuous experience in practice. Nimesh specialises in the interaction of personal and corporate tax matters, advising predominantly entrepreneurs from across a variety of industry sectors on all aspects of their personal and corporate tax affairs. This includes their company’s business life cycle –from start-up and growth through to business exit.

He is regularly approached to comment on tax matters in the media including the broadsheets and personal finance publications, and has made appearances on radio and television. Nimesh can also be found speaking regularly at a host of events on tax issues.

Amongst his career highlights Nimesh includes his appointment as CEO of Blick Rothenberg, as well as being recognised for several leading industry awards including eprivateclient’s ‘50 Most Influential Private Client Professionals’ and Spear’s Private Client Accountant of the Year 2022.

He has a keen interest in the UK’s tax policy and regularly inputs into Government consultations including stakeholder meetings with HM Revenue & Customs and HM Treasury.

He is passionate about both improving the UK’s tax system through simplification and reducing barriers and compliance requirements to promote entrepreneurship in the UK.

About Blick Rothenberg

Founded in 1945, Blick Rothenberg is a leading audit, tax, accounting and business advisory firm founded on personal integrity and technical expertise.

The firm offers audit, accounting and business advisory services, as well as advice on corporate and personal tax matters.

Since 2016 Blick Rothenberg has been a part of what is now known as the Azets group.

A significant majority of the economic interest in Blick Rothenberg is held by investment funds managed by Hg Capital and PAI Partners.

More information: Blickrothenberg.com

The Camino Search team would like to thank Nimesh Shah and the team at Blick Rothenberg for their ongoing support of The Global Report publication.

Issue Two Afterword & Thanks

Creative Editor

TO HAVE the opportunity to share the insights and thoughts of our incredible contributors from across our global search network has been a great privilege. My personal thanks go to all of our contributors; Gary Ito, James Hayward, Jerome Arnaud, Benyam Hagos, Amit Lakhani, Steve Berg, Lucas Nelson, Dr Henri Winand, and Dennis Mahoney for their for their expertise, trust and patience as we compiled, together, this second issue. A very special thanks goes Nimesh Shah, CEO, at Blick Rothenberg - this is the second report that Blick Rothenberg have kindly contributed towards and the willingness to support and engage with us - not withstanding the knowledge of Nimesh and his team - is greatly appreciated by everyone at Camino Search. I would also like to thank our Camino Search team - our brilliant search consultants - who have helped to compile this publication.

One of our key values at Camino Search is ‘In It Together’ and our consulting team have worked hard to source contributions relevant to this report. Notably, my thanks to our UK team; Tom Garratt, Edward Vorley and Oliver Dunne, Lauren Andrews and Mariola Bonnici.

And in our US team; Harry Hewson and Oscar Cabrera. I’d like to extend a very special mention to Dan McEvoy for the hours of research and editorial insight he has provided for this publication and for his efforts researching and compiling data and charts for the H1 review into a digest. I have always believed that a marketing department is and should be a ‘learning function’, thus, feedback is always welcome. Please feel free to contact me, directly, to feedback on the publication, Alternatively, I would also invite insights and expertise for Issue Three. So if you would like to contribute your thoughts, insights or showcase unique and interesting propositions to our global network, The Global Report does provide an excellent opportunity to do this and I would welcome your ideas - again - via email. We’ll look forward to bringing you the third edition in Q1 of 2025. Can I also take the opportunity to with you a strong rest-of-quarter for 2024 and a positive start to the New Year.

Rob

Rob Andrews

Director of Marketing, Camino Search Global Report Creative Editor rob@caminosearch.co.uk

About The Editor

With more than 15 years’ combined experience in marketing communications and executive leadership, Rob worked in [and ‘grew up’ in!] investor-backed infrastructure and-retail telecoms businesses, working as a Marketing Director and later as a Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer; eventually becoming responsible for national go-to-market strategies of subscription-based telecom products. He joined Camino Search as Marketing Director in 2023 to help to grow the business’ marketing operation.

Rob is passionate about sharing knowledge and helping others grow their skill set and with this approach he is also a NonExecutive Director (NED) and advisor to a UK-based

The Global Report Research Data Sources*

Page 14/15

Chart source: Dealroom via https://www.statista.com/statistics/1422267/ vc-investment-worldwide-by-quarter/

Other sources: https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2024/04/venturepulse-q1-2024.pdf

Page 16/17

Chart source: https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2024/04/venturepulse-report.html

Other sources: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/global-funding-recap-q1-2024/ https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2024/04/venture-pulse-report. html

https://www.cityam.com/monzo-valued-at-over-4bn-after-150m-fundingto-support-expansion-and-new-products/ https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/global-funding-recap-q1-2024/

Page 18/19

Chart 1 source: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/newsinsights/blog/global-ma-by-the-numbers-q1-2024

Chart 2 source: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/newsinsights/blog/global-ma-by-the-numbers-q1-2024 and https://www. spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/global-ma-bythe-numbers-q1-2023

Other sources: https://www.globaldata.com/store/report/m-and-a-deals-by-theme-andsector-analysis/

Page 20/21

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/ global-ma-by-the-numbers-q1-2024

https://investor.capitalone.com/news-releases/news-release-details/ capital-one-acquire-discover

https://investor.synopsys.com/news/news-details/2024/Synopsys-toAcquire-Ansys-Creating-a-Leader-in-Silicon-to-Systems-Design-Solutions/ default.aspx

https://www.diamondbackenergy.com/news-releases/news-releasedetails/diamondback-energy-inc-and-endeavor-energy-resources-lpmerge

https://ir.homedepot.com/news-releases/2024/03-28-2024-100102814

https://www.catalent.com/catalent-news/novo-holdings-to-acquirecatalent/

Page 22 / 23

https://www.aranca.com/assets/docs/Global-Private-EquityFactbook-Q1-2024.pdf

Page 24/25

https://media.truist.com/2024-02-20-Truist-announces-agreement-tosell-remaining-stake-in-Truist-Insurance-Holdings-to-investor-groupled-by-Stone-Point-Capital-and-Clayton,-Dubilier-Rice,-valuing-TruistInsurance-Holdings-at-15-5-billion

https://media.truist.com/2024-05-07-Truist-completes-sale-of-TruistInsurance-Holdings-and-executes-strategic-balance-sheet-repositioning https://www.investor.fisglobal.com/news-releases/news-release-details/ fis-completes-sale-majority-stake-worldpay-gtcr https://corporate.worldpay.com/news-releases/news-release-details/ worldpay-begins-operating-independent-company https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/ latest-news-headlines/us-ipo-market-hits-2-year-high-with-surge-in-q2activity-82398712

https://pages.marketintelligence.spglobal.com/Global-Capital-MarketsIPO-Infographic-Q12024-Demo-Request.html

https://www.economicsobservatory.com/ukraine-whats-the-globaleconomic-impact-of-russias-invasion

Page 26/27

Chart source: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/newsinsights/latest-news-headlines/us-ipo-market-hits-2-year-high-withsurge-in-q2-activity-82398712

Other sources:

https://www.ey.com/en_ch/news/2024/04/ipos-in-q1-2024-signs-of-arecovery-more-stock-market-flotations-in-switzerland-than-anywhereelse-in-the-world

Page 28/29

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1312134/worldwide-largest-iposquarterly/ https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/skin-care-companygaldermas-shares-soar-stock-market-debut-2024-03-22/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/germanys-douglas-sharestrading-below-price-guidance-ipo-2024-03-21/

Page 32/33

Chart source: KPMG VC Pulse Reports, Q2 2024 (Funding Raised), Q1 2023 - Q2 2024 (Deal Volume)

Other sources: https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2024/07/venturepulse-q2-2024.pdf

Page 34/35

Chart 1 source: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/ global-ma-by-the-numbers-q2-2024

Chart 2 source: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/ global-ma-by-the-numbers-q2-2024

Other sources: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/conocophillips-marathon-oil-getsecond-us-ftc-request-over-225-bln-deal-2024-07-12/

Page 36/37

Chart source: https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q2-2024-global-pefirst-look

Table source: https://www.ropesgray.com/en/insights/alerts/2024/07/uspe-market-recap

Other sources: https://www.silverlake.com/silver-lake-to-take-endeavor-private/ https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/Q2_2024_US_PE_ Breakdown.pdf

Page 38/39

Chart 1 source: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/newsinsights/latest-news-headlines/us-ipo-market-hits-2-year-high-withsurge-in-q2-activity-82398712

Chart 2 source: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/newsinsights/latest-news-headlines/us-ipo-market-hits-2-year-high-withsurge-in-q2-activity-82398712

Other sources: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-07/waystar-sharesdip-4-7-after-2024-s-biggest-ipo-by-a-us-company?sref=AaLF1RVh https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/safety-testing-firm-ul-solutionsshares-rise-21-market-debut-2024-04-12/ https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/25/rubrik-ipo-rbrk-starts-trading-onnew-york-stock-exchange.html https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PACS/history/ https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/ healthcare-firm-pacs-groups-shares-rise-9-nyse-debut-2024-04-11/

*All charts designed and compiled by Dan McEvoy with information researched gathered from the data points above. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data presented, neither Dan McEvoy nor Camino Search can accept any liability for any inaccurate information and this data should not be relied upon in its own right for business or investment decisions.

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