Founder-led businesses that are growing fast often hit a point where the finance function can’t keep pace: processes that worked at 7 people break at 100, and complex transactions or exchange control questions need someone who’s actually navigated them before. Elsabé works with CEOs and CFOs at exactly that transition, turning chaos into a professional, scalable operation.
She’s a Fractional CFO based in Cape Town with 15 to 20 years of experience across Southern Africa, the US, UK, Europe and Australia, working with startups, SME entities, JSE-listed corporates and global corporates. Her core expertise spans finance principles, global taxation, corporate finance structuring and exchange control, built through work in private equity, alternative lending, fintech, pharmaceuticals, FMCG, manufacturing, non-profit, telecommunications, hedge funds, medical services and travel. She’s a member of the Fractional Collective, Fractionals SA and Will’s Green Walk.
Over 8 years, she built and managed a finance team that grew from 15 professionals to support a group expanding from 7 staff in a single Cape Town office to a global investment group of 100 staff across 8 offices spanning Malta, the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa and Australia. She’s worked with Genfin Business Finance, Coast2Coast Capital, Ascendis Health, Bounty Brands, and both RSM US and RSM SA, alongside unnamed engagements including a Southern African pharmaceutical distribution group and a mobile medical services startup.
Elsabé’s approach starts with understanding something fully before she tries to explain or fix it. Colleagues describe her as someone who gets to the point, which, in complex finance situations, tends to be exactly what’s needed.
