Zero Local Experience to Scaling a Fintech 15x - Arjun Adhia (Eftsure)

When he first arrived in Australia, he got rejected for not having local experience. 3 months later, the same person called him back because every “safe” hire had failed.Arjun Adhia is now CFO at Eftsure, a fintech SaaS business fighting B2B payment fraud.He’s been there 4.5 years, joining when the business had around 600 customers. Since then, the business has grown roughly 15x.Arjun didn’t start in Australia. He grew up in Oman and East Africa, trained as a CA in India, then moved to Perth.But when he arrived, no one would hire him. He volunteered for unpaid work, picked up a small audit gig and kept showing up.A callback came from a hiring manager who’d already passed on him. Three local candidates hadn’t worked out, so Arjun got the call.“Are you still looking?” and he started the next day.From there he moved to Sydney, spent 5 years at Source Group working his way from FC to director of finance and helped exit the business to a US-listed buyer.He then joined Eftsure as Group FC with the possibility of stepping into the CFO role. He put in the work and earned his place as CFO.When the PE sponsors tried to exit earlier this year, the SaaS-pocalypse hit and the process didn’t get them where they needed.Rather than wait, Eftsure pivoted and doubled down on acquisitions in the US and Europe, while expanding into Singapore and Hong Kong.The failed exit turned into the next growth chapter.It’s a reminder that the best finance careers aren’t always the ones with the cleanest start.Sometimes the person who got the callback, is the best one after all!Highlights:Moving to Australia from India with zero local experience and the months-long search for a first accounting roleGetting rejected and then called back three months later when every local hire had failedTransitioning from Big 4 audit to industry and building a career pathway from controller to CFOSpending five years at Source Group and helping exit the business to a US-listed strategic buyerJoining Eftsure as group FC and earning the CFO seat through a 15x growth periodRunning a PE exit process during the SaaS-pocalypse and pivoting to an acquisition strategy when the sale didn’t landExpanding Eftsure globally through acquisitions in the US and Europe, with launches into Singapore and Hong KongUsing AI operationally within the finance function for reconciliations, data synthesis, and predictive analysis Tom Hunter, Story Recruitment - first-CFO and first-finance-hire search for Australian tech, fintech and deeptech startups. Host of the CFO Track Podcast. Storyrecruitment.com.au