Launching Fractional CTO Bridge on 12th Anniversary of CFO Bridge

Launching Fractional CTO Bridge on 12th Anniversary of CFO Bridge

April 26, 2024, on the day Bengaluru voted to choose their Lok Sabha representatives, Srinivasan V Swamy (Srini), the founder of CFO Bridge, India’s leading virtual CFO services firm, ventured into a new business with the launch of CTO Bridge, a fractional CTO services platform, in a ceremony held at Vivanta by Taj, Bengaluru.

CFO Bridge Accomplished 2 Major Milestones

1. CFO Bridge completing 12 years of its operations.
2. Launch of CTO Bridge, joining hands with Yashmia Consulting and Technologies and CFO Bridge.

CFO Bridge: Empowering Indian SMEs and Startups Since 2012

The story of CFO Bridge began when Srini, during his daily morning walks, heard his close friends from successful startups struggling to hire top financial management talent.

Realizing that start-ups and SMEs struggle to match the salaries offered by the bigger players, Srinivasan started CFO Bridge in 2012 with a vision to provide the best CFO services at an affordable cost to companies operating in the Indian SME and Startup space.

Having served more than 400 clients, CFO Bridge has endured long-term relationships with clients and has grown manifold in the number of partners, clients, and delivery staff, with a strong presence in the Indian cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and NCR.

CTO Bridge – Fractional Technology Services Platform

CTO Bridge is co-founded by Satyanarayanan Visvanathan, Sashikala Viswanathan, Sundar Sampat, and Srinivasan V Swamy, bringing together the fusion of business acumen, financial prowess, and technological expertise.

CTO Bridge provides Technology leadership on a fractional, part-time, or interim basis. CTO Bridge solutions enable small-medium organizations to avail premium technology skills at affordable cost models by leveraging the fractional availability of their CTO partners.

They are currently present in five cities with seven CTO partners and five tech ecosystem partners. They operate in twelve domains.

Get in touch with CTO Bridge to know more about how they can help you.

April 26, 2024, CFO Bridge Mahakumbh Event at Bengaluru

The top leadership team at CFO Bridge chose the name CFO Mahakumbh 2024, after the Mahakumbh Mela, which is held every twelve years.

Key Highlights of the event were:

• 12-year anniversary celebration of CFO Bridge
• Srini spoke about the CFO Bridge 10-year anniversary event hosted in Mumbai a couple of years ago and highlighted the fact that Bengaluru is emerging as the new hub for virtual CFO services with the increasing presence of CFO partners in the city.
• Srini proudly spoke about the key achievements over the last 12 years and mentioned that CFO Bridge has grown to 80+ finance professionals in different age groups, 100+ ongoing clients, and at least INR 10,000 crores of “annual turnover under influence (TUI)”. CFO Bridge’s biggest asset is the talent bank of 35+ CFOs with diverse experience.
• He also emphasized that at least 10 clients have been with CFO Bridge for more than 10 years and many more for more than 5 years. Srini spoke about CFO Bridge having a quantifiable impact of at least 200 basis points of positive impact on EBITDA.
• He also spoke about the “two in a box” concept, where two CFOs work together wherever required, complementing each other and putting the client's needs first.
• CFO Bridge USA operations expanded with a new CFO Partner in Arizona last month.
• Srini announced the addition of two new verticals:
  • Focusing on the social impact entities, not-for-profit and section 8 companies- headed by Mugundan in Bengaluru.
  • Focusing on ESG – reporting and accounting sides.

CFO Bridge also has a strategic partnership with JCSS, a firm of chartered accountants with expertise in taxation, audit, forex, legal advisory, and consulting in India, Japan, Indonesia, and Singapore. Both entities work as one team for their clients. JCSS partner Balki spoke about the partnership in detail.

Srini also announced a tie-up with an M&A advisory and investment banking firm, Apta Advices, led by Hari.

Corporate Dice – to overcome corporate dilemmas. Add the picture.

Some of the CFO Bridge clients present at the event shared high praises; videos are available at this link.

Launch of CTO Bridge: Fractional CTO, CIO, CISO

CFOs and business leaders have realized that finance and technology can not function well without each other. Hiring a full-time technology leader has the same cost constraints for SME companies.

So, expanding the concept of fractional CFO, Srini launched CTO Bridge along with Satya, Sashi, and Sundar. CTO Bridge's co-founding team are some of the best minds in technology, services, and products.

Satya introduced eight CTO partners, industry veterans who have worked in startups, legacy systems, various industries, and companies of various sizes. The CTO Bridge logo depicts the technology vision for the future.

Watch the launch video here: CFO Mahakumbh 2024

The Keynote Address

The keynote speaker was Mr. Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, a renowned industry leader and the Founding Partner of Catalincs Partners LLP, a growth advisory firm that enables small tech companies to scale and grow their businesses rapidly.

Ramkumar spoke on “Fractional CXOs and an idea whose time has come now!”

If startups and medium-sized businesses get the right kind of advisory support and direction, their rate of success can improve. The key challenge these small but promising businesses face while hiring top leaders in the finance, technology, and advisory domains is the enormous costs involved. That is why the concept of fractional CFOs/ CTO/ CIP/ CMO and CXOs is becoming popular.

These fractional CXOs help build multiple companies.

Why fractional CXOs are required for SME companies?

• Strategic guidance
• Specialized expertise
• Flexibility
• Interim solutions
• Cost and speed to market
• Innovation
• Pinch hitting (impact players)
• Crisis management

Ramkumar also spoke about how the ‘fractional’ model is expanding beyond the corporate world into fractional philanthropy, fractional education, and fractional nation-building.

He also spoke about the expectations from a modern CFO.

Watch the entire speech here: CFO Mahakumbh 2024

Panel Discussion on ‘Tech for CFO Office – Current State and Its Need’

A thought-provoking panel discussion on ‘Tech for CFO Office – Current State and Its Need.’

The panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Ravikumar Ramanan, a pivotal figure in the world of finance, consulting, and sales for over 30 years, serving in global roles and as the CFO of IBM India. Recently, he authored 'The CFO Lens—How to Thrive in the Fast-changing World of Finance,' a book that offers practical insights for finance professionals. It features 60+ anecdotes from his experience and that of current/ex-CFOs from renowned companies. The esteemed panel members were:

• Mr. Jaipal Singal, CFO at iD Fresh Food (India) Pvt. Ltd. With over two decades of industry expertise, having served as Vice President and CFO at companies like Mahindra, Urban Ladder, Marks and Spencer, and more.
• Mr. Vikash Sureka, CFO at BrowserStack with more than 25 years of experience as CFO and Senior Corporate Finance leader in companies, namely IBS, Startek, CSC, Wipro, etc.
• Mr. Srinivasan Srini, Co-Founder at Treaties Network with over 30 years of experience as Vice President & CFO in companies like Bosch, Unilever, HUL, and many more.
• Mr. Amit Kulkarni, Director at Fireside Ventures who, has been a senior corporate finance leader for more than a decade, with diverse experiences ranging from the Venture capital industry and Big 4.

The event was live-streamed. You can watch the recording of the panel discussion here: CFO Mahakumbh 2024.