Short answer: A remote CFO is a qualified finance executive working fractionally — typically a few days a month — giving early-stage companies board-level financial capability without a full-time salary. Their highest-value contribution isn't bookkeeping. It's making you fundable before you start asking.

The core functions

• Financial modelling — a three-way forecast linking P&L, balance sheet and cash flow that survives investor scrutiny

• Cash flow and runway management — knowing your zero date to the week, not the quarter

• Capital structure and cap table — modelling dilution before you sign, not after

• Investor-ready reporting — monthly packs that build a track record of hitting stated numbers

• Due diligence preparation — a clean data room assembled before anyone asks

• Compliance and governance — statutory obligations, director duties, the unglamorous things that kill deals late

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Planning a pre-seed raise

Most pre-seed rounds are priced on narrative because there's little else. A remote CFO replaces some of that narrative with evidence.

Three deliverables matter: a defensible model where assumptions are visible and challengeable; a use-of-funds breakdown showing exactly what the money buys and what milestone it reaches; and a valuation position you can argue rather than assert.

They also tell you the thing founders avoid hearing — whether you're raising too early. Raising nine months before you need to, against weak metrics, usually costs more in dilution than waiting.

Where they help with crowdfunding

Equity crowdfunding under Australia's CSF regime lets eligible companies raise up to $5 million in any 12-month period. Eligibility covers unlisted public companies and proprietary companies with under $25 million in assets and turnover; financial services businesses and investment vehicles are excluded.

A CFO's role here is specific: structuring the offer, setting a minimum and maximum target you can actually hit, preparing the offer document, and modelling what hundreds of new shareholders do to your cap table and future rounds.

Birchal and the Australian landscape

Birchal holds close to 70% market share, with OnMarket second. In the final quarter of FY25, Birchal accounted for 97.5% of funding volume.

Its fees (ex GST): $2,000 for the expression-of-interest campaign, $5,000 for offer administration, then a success fee charged only on completed raises — 8% under $500k, 6% between $500k and $1M, and 5% above $1M. End to end takes roughly 10–12 weeks.

The market reality: CSF volume fell nearly 50% year on year to $33.1 million in FY25, though the framework has raised over $347 million across 489 successful offers since inception. Encouragingly, 32% of CSF capital went to teams with at least one woman founder — against 15% in venture capital.

One caveat worth absorbing: Airwallex alone took almost 90% of the capital going to women-inclusive teams, leaving roughly $29 million for everyone else.

Why marketing decides the outcome

Here's what founders underestimate. Birchal's EOI stage exists to test demand before the offer goes live — and campaigns are won or lost there, not during the raise.

Equity crowdfunding is not a funding mechanism with marketing attached. It is a marketing campaign that happens to end in a share allocation. You need an audience assembled in advance, a reason for them to care, and content ready across the full window. Campaigns that launch cold to an empty list fail publicly.

Note also that all promotion must carry the mandatory CSF risk warning — plan your creative around it.

General information only, not financial or legal advice. Speak to a licensed adviser about your structure.

Sources: Birchal Raise Capital, SmartCompany on the Birchal FY25 Funded Report