FLYR Labs – Global finance rebuilt, fast
Client Name and Description: FLYR Labs provides AI for revenue optimization for
major airlines around the world. In September 2021, the Company announced its
$150M Series C round, bringing total announced investment to over $186M.
Client profile: The company had 250 employees across offices in the U.S., Poland, and
Netherlands, when we were first engaged. During our engagement employee base
grew to over 650, and the number of legal entities grew from four to ten
Time and duration of engagement: May 2022- Present
Introduction
The initial engagement was to provide Fractional CFO services, focusing on investor reporting and ensuring debt compliance for two recently acquired large facilities. Within the first week, the company’s Controller abruptly quit her two-year post. This immediate staffing crisis left the global Finance function severely under-resourced, essentially operating with only the Fractional CFO and two staff accountants.
With minimal handover and the organization facing a critical leadership void, FIAB co-founder Amit Mulchandani came on board to assist, bringing his team to address the urgency. Together, we rapidly scaled the function to ten professionals and executed across many fronts to stabilize and advance the company’s financial needs.
Services Rendered
FIAB’s engagement with FLYR Labs has been about as comprehensive and robust as any company could need. From cleanup and process design to system evaluation and overhaul, FIAB had to implement sophisticated Finance and Accounting approaches for this mid-stage company.
Accounting Clean Up
Having operated on a shoestring team, the books were in a poor state. The FIAB team methodically went month-to-month and cleaned up the books for proper GAAP reporting and future audit readiness.
Financial Statement Audits
The Company had investor requirements for the 2021 audited financial statements. FIAB navigated this audit, along with the third-party valuation of two prior acquisitions. Later, the team led efforts to identify a Big 4 auditor and subsequently navigated the 2022 audit.
International Acquisitions
During our tenure, the company completed three international acquisitions within a three-month span. FIAB team members participated in pre- and post-acquisition work, including due diligence, Finance Operations integration, and third-party valuations.
Tax and Compliance Clean Up
With reporting requirements in over 25 states, it was unclear what the state of play was for Flyr’s reporting requirements. The international requirements raised a whole host of other questions.
The FIAB team partnered with local tax experts to ensure closure of reporting gaps and architected a compliance calendar and new exposure process to ensure go-forward compliance.
Multiple System Conversions (NetSuite & Tipalti)
The Company had been using Intacct for its accounting, but it was never set up properly. FIAB led a conversion to NetSuite, along with a partnership with a 3P technical implementation partner.
We also upgraded the Company’s AP platform to Tipalti, which allowed for Purchase Orders and multi-currency transactions. With new tools, we were able to architect new processes.
Banking Transition
As the Company grew, it quickly became clear that the domestic banking partner was inadequate for their needs.
We researched internationally strong banking providers and ended up settling with HSBC for deposit and banking operations and JPMorgan for Treasury management.
Client Testimonial
Alex Mans, Flyr CEO, had this to say about our work:
“As a startup, we find our priorities in constant flux with a need to deliver at often unreasonable timelines. Finance functions support everything from operations to planning and need an ability to balance support of such a demanding environment while also doing the job right. Jim (FIAB) represents such balance, knowing where and when to deliver to the then-adequate level of need.”
Steve Schoch, the Company’s CFO, also shared the following:
“Overall, Jim has been a reliable and forward-thinking interim CFO who has demonstrated the highest level of expertise, dedication, teamwork and professionalism. His contributions have been invaluable to our organization, and I would strongly recommend him to any organization looking for a skilled and experienced Finance Leader.”
Conclusion
Since FIAB’s initial engagement with FLYR Labs, the Company has hired a former public company CFO and Controller to lead the function from inside the organization.
Our partnership and required FIAB demonstrate our capabilities on a number of different fronts:
- Ability to scale up and deploy a team, quickly, as needed
- Understanding of GAAP reporting and audit savviness
- Technology and tools evaluation and implementation
- Multi-currency, multi-jurisdiction consolidations and reporting
- Acquisition capabilities
- Authoring of right-sized policies and procedures
- Much more
As of this publication, FIAB continues to maintain staffing for FIAB, providing high-value team members to support Flyr’s accounting operations.
