On the heels of pre-seed funding, OneCFO PH is rapidly building its client roster of Philippine early stage businesses and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that require a host of financial services most founders need to grow, but lack in capability or capacity.
Founded in November 2022 by Jay Olos, OneCFO PH set out to help startups with tech-enabled platforms for bookkeeping, tax and payroll, as well as outsourced CFO services – recognizing not all founders have a strong background in finance. Olos is a seasoned finance veteran, having served as CFO of GCash, PayMongo and MoneyMax, as well as finance group head of SEA-based fintech group, Hyphen Group (formerly CompareAsia Group). His work experience includes being an auditor for KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
To set OneCFO PH in motion, Olos partnered with co-founder and CPA Limuel Cornejo, who serves as the company’s COO. Cornejo is likewise a seasoned executive in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, as well as managing partner of accounting firm Cornejo, Del Rosario & Company.
“As an auditor at the Big 4 (KPMG, PwC), I couldn’t help but to compare the financials of big businesses and small businesses, and I always wonder how I could help small businesses achieve the large profits of large businesses,” said Olos in a year end message explaining his “why” to his team, investors and advisors. “While my peers were so focused on ensuring the audit processes were followed 100%, I focused on understanding and learning from the underlying decisions resulting in huge financial successes for those businesses.”
A son of a carinderia and sari-sari store owner, Olos was the first ever Latin honor graduate and CPA top-notcher of a small squatter community in Antipolo City. As the family breadwinner, he felt an enormous responsibility to ensure the success of his family business, as well as those of other entrepreneurs that often end up being deluged by debt from predatory lenders.
Olos highlighted a sizeable market opportunity of small businesses and startups in the Philippines and other emerging Southeast Asia markets where OneCFO PH seeks to expand to in the coming years. Based on his sources, the Philippines has an estimated 700 tech startups and close to 105,000 small and medium sized businesses, compared to around 11,500 tech startups and an estimated 1.9 million SMEs combined in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Addressing Pain Points
“Not all founders have a background in finance, much less could afford a CFO, so “how are you going to monetize the business?” is a question asked in investor pitches,” framed Olos. “At the early stage, businesses don’t really need a CFO, but they will require the services of a financial advisor that can strategically help model out the business financially, help in taxes, accounting – particularly in a multi-jurisdiction or geographic/country approach,” he added.
In addition, Olos believes the accounting profession, particularly in the Philippines, has been slow to adapt to technology. Reflecting on this, Olos cited legacy systems in finance departments and the fact that accountants are somehow imprisoned by the way things are done. Today’s accountants are also not quite familiar with how startups operate, and lack the skills to provide support in ley areas like fundraising.
His definition of a high-quality CFO? Citing a recent podcast, Olos says an effective CFO today uses available technology to complement his or her skill set.
Competitive Advantage
In a nutshell, OneCFO PH is a plug & play, all in one CFO suite platform that offers single access to synched, multiple systems with world-class features in bookkeeping, CFO services like insightful reports, cash flow forecasting and actionable financial insights, and equity management. The Company is currently working on its suite of products so clients can get dynamic and real-time financial statements (P&L, Balance Sheets, Cash Flow), a customizable KPI dashboard, tiered access, integrated messaging and chat system, as well as dedicated finance and accounting professionals with whom clients can interact during business hours.
OneCFO PH’s business model revolves around a mix of subscription-based fees for services such as bookkeeping, payroll and retained CFO services charged on a monthly basis, and value-based CFO services that pertain to one-time, project-based arrangements like financial modelling, valuation, fundraising assistance, financial department set-up, incubation and transfer, finance business process review and improvement, and strategic finance engagements such as corporate development, strategic tax planning, financial due diligence for investments, M&A and IPO transactions, etc.
OneCFO PH recognizes it can’t do it alone, which is why the company has formed an advisory board composed of experts in the field that include Marvin Galang (founder & CEO of JuanTax and former Xero regional advisor), Dr. Ed Cabantog (founder & CEO of AIM Global and chairman of Globalinks Securities), Chuck De Castro (former Chief Investment Officer at P/E Capital investments, and Atty. Reiland Gumabao, CPA (Senior Risk Management Officer and former BSP Examiner).
Apart from empowering small businesses and startups to achieve their goals with back-office bookkeeping, tax, payroll and CFO service solutions, OneCFO PH’s ultimate goal is to help his clients make good business decisions with their guiding principles of being client-centric, valuing integrity, investing heavily on technology and innovation, focusing on quality (over quantity), collaboration over competition, providing tools to develop leaders, and fostering diversity and inclusion.
OneCFO PH’s client roster has expanded quickly and become quite diversified since its inception. The company’s clients are in the fields of edtech, fintech, agritech, import-export, wholesale, manufacturing, and hardware tech. Its current clients also include fast-growing tech startups including some YC companies and small businesses needing automation and integration like in inventory management.
“The good thing about having the financial services provided by OneCFO is that we need to run and crunch numbers to determine how much the budget we need, if we are on the right track knowing if we can make it, and how many customers we need to onboard,” said Eric Tan, founder and CEO of DyipPay, a smart mobility platform for jeepneys and tricycles. “The people at OneCFO are creating this financial model for us and advising us on the most inexpensive way to roll out a project, the cost of acquisition per customer and OPEX we need for this year 2023,” he added.
“In less than two months we’ve achieved a lot for a newly-established start-up by winning good clients, piquing interest of investors and some conglomerates, sealing partnership proposals from well-known brands including some tech unicorns, and receiving CVs of talents from investment bankers, accountants – including CFOs and CTOs,” shared Olos as OneCFO PH prepares for the next milestone.
By the end of the 2nd quarter of 2023, OneCFO will launch a web-based platform, signalling the next phase of its product portfolio that would further strengthen its offering, fuel expansion of its market coverage into SEA, and bring the company closer to achieving its vision of becoming “the Uber of financial services.” Olos likens it to having an entire finance department under one platform of tech-based, AI-driven and integrated solutions that will allow real-time interaction with their clients’ accountants with online dashboards and messaging systems. Essentially, OneCFO is gearing up as a Finance-as-a-Service (FaaS).
Under tough global economic conditions, Olos seems confident OneCFO will continue to thrive.
“As a B2B company, we are vulnerable to the highs and lows of our clientele, particularly those that are directly impacted by the looming uncertainties in the markets,” Olos said as he looked to the immediate future. “But this won’t stop us from growing. In fact, we are approaching the best time in history to launch businesses that have a high chance of growth as economies prepare for the next bull run.”