Finance Lead (Reporting & Compliance) - Startup

About Company

Company is a D2C start-up offering trendy and affordable lifestyle products inspired by modern East Asian culture. It blends contemporary aesthetics with traditional elements through global collaborations. Expanding rapidly, it is building its presence in retail and online spaces.

Role Summary:

Looking for a Finance Lead who can take ownership of day-to-day finance operations and ensure strong compliance, reporting, and control as we scale. This role will work closely with leadership and external finance partners (including Big 4 teams like Deloitte) and should be comfortable in a start-up environment with fundraising exposure.

Key Responsibilities:

1) Financial Operations & Closures

? Manage monthly closing activities: accruals, provisions, reconciliations, and finalization of MIS.

? Own P&L, Balance Sheet, cash flow tracking and explain variances vs plan/budget.

? Maintain strong controls across AP/AR, bank reconciliations, vendor payments, and expense governance.

? Coordinate with Big 4 finance partners (including Deloitte team) for audits, reviews, and advisory workstreams.

? Drive timely compliance and filings: GST, TDS, PF/ESI (if applicable), income tax, and statutory requirements via consultants.

? Ensure documentation readiness for audits, tax assessments, and due diligence.

3) Fundraising & Investor Readiness

? Support fundraising processes: data room preparation, financial schedules, and due diligence coordination.

? Prepare investor/MIS packs with insights on revenue, margins, opex, working capital, and cash runway.

? Assist leadership in building financial narratives and KPIs relevant to start-up investors.

4) Business Finance & Decision Support (Added)

? Partner with teams to improve unit economics: gross margin, category margin, UPT, discounting impact, and store-level profitability.

? Build and maintain budgets, forecasts, and scenario planning (base / aggressive / conservative).

? Drive working capital discipline: inventory, vendor cycles, and cash planning.

5) Systems, Process & Controls (Added)

? Improve finance processes through SOPs, maker-checker controls, and automation where possible.

? Work with tools like Tally/Zoho/Busy/QuickBooks, Excel/Google Sheets; bonus if youve handled POS/ERP integrations.

? Maintain a clean finance structure for multi-location retail operations (stores + warehouse + ecommerce).

Must-Have Requirements:

? 45 years of finance experience (start-up preferred).

? Must have worked in a start-up that has raised funds (Seed/Pre-Series A/Series A etc.) and understands investor expectations.

? Experience working with Big 4 finance partners, specifically comfort coordinating with Deloitte teams.

? Strong hands-on knowledge of GST, TDS, basic accounting, reconciliations, and monthly MIS.

? Advanced Excel/Sheets skills (pivots, lookups, dashboards; comfort with large datasets).

Good-to-Have (Added):

? Prior experience in retail / D2C / ecommerce / omnichannel businesses.

? Exposure to inventory accounting, store-level P&Ls, and margin analysis.

? Experience preparing data rooms and managing due diligence checklists.

? CA Inter / MBA Finance / similar is a plus (not mandatory if performance is strong).