The Venture CFO: The Hire Most Series A and B Founders Are Getting Wrong

A new white paper from VenturePath and Sheffield Haworth sets out one of the most significant - and underappreciated — risks facing UK scaleups in 2026: the absence of a strategic CFO at the moment it matters most.

The headline finding is stark. 67% of future scaleups have no CFO in place. In a venture market that has fundamentally reset around capital efficiency and operating discipline, that gap is no longer a back-office oversight. It is a visible signal to investors — and increasingly, a deciding factor in whether a Series A or B closes at all.

The report draws on VenturePath's founder survey and community data alongside Sheffield Haworth's market insights to map the scale of the problem and what founders should do about it:

• The gap is wider than most founders realise: 67% of scaleup founders have no CFO in place, and 41% have identified the gap but are unsure when or how to fill it. These are not struggling businesses — they are ambitious founders who have prioritised product, engineering and commercial hires, treating finance as something that can wait.

• The venture market has made waiting expensive: Mega-rounds are down roughly 40% from the 2021 peak. Investors are now underwriting the financial infrastructure of a business, not just the founder's vision. A CFO who can speak fluently to burn, unit economics, scenario planning and capital allocation is no longer a nice-to-have — it is a prerequisite.

• The hire needs to happen earlier than founders expect: The white paper's clear recommendation is to bring in a strategic CFO six to nine months before the round opens — enough time to clean up the books, build a credible forecast, and walk into the raise with the financial narrative already rehearsed. Hiring after the term sheet is signed is too late.

The report also sets out the five capabilities founders should screen for — from commercial and operating fluency to fundraising credibility, systems and data literacy, downside planning, and the ability to build a finance function that scales — making the case that the strategic CFO at Series A or B is a fundamentally different hire from a Head of Finance or a controller.

As the white paper puts it: the CFO is the one hire that sits at the centre of capital efficiency, operational rigour, and credible downside planning. Leaving the seat empty, or filling it with the wrong capability, is one of the highest-leverage mistakes a scaling founder can make in this market.

Read the overview for:

• Data on the CFO gap across UK scaleups at Series A and B

• The five capabilities that define a strategic CFO hire

• A clear framework for timing the hire within the fundraising lifecycle

Read The Venture CFO 2026 a joint insight from VenturePath and Sheffield Haworth.