Hybrid Accountant (Fund and Corporate) - Venture Capital

Hybrid Accountant (Fund and Corporate Accounting) - Venture Capital

My client is a highly successful boutique Venture Capital firm with assets under management of $1 billion, across 4 funds investing in UK tech businesses.

Title: Accountant (70% Fund Accounting duties, 30% Management Company Accounting duties)

Reports to: Finance Director

You will have key relationships with: Partner group, Finance team, Investment team, Operations, Marketing and Events, External investors, Auditors, Fund administrators, Tax advisors, Regulatory advisers, Legal advisors, Portfolio company CFOs and Finance teams

Hybrid: 3 days in the office, 2 days from home

Purposes of Role:

• Contribute directly to the commercial success of the business and playing an integral part in managing the activities of flagship funds located in the UK and Luxembourg
• Make a strong contribution to our whole team through creating and driving whole-business processes and being part of developing information systems to support the firm's management and investment teams, external investors and advisors
• Play a vital role in an evolving finance function which is closely involved in all aspects of our business, working in close collaboration with an expanding and dynamic investment team

Responsibilities:

• 70% of the role sits on the Fund Accounting side with the remainder of accounting duties on the Management Company side
• Ensuring flawless cash management & forecasting - cash management, fund cashflow forecasts, bank reconciliations
• Finance Operations - Limited Partners distribution management, Limited Partners report distribution, accounts payable
• Budgeting - manager entity budgeting, manager entity accounting, creating and maintaining a clear structure for our manager entity accounts
• Accounting and audit support - posting supplier invoices, journal preparation, journal posting, balance sheet reconciliations, month-end close, payroll accounting, financial audit support, FCA audit support, ensuring simple, clear audit trail
• Finance Systems - implementation of finance systems, testing and developing processes
• EIS - coordinating EIS tax relief for our investments, close liaison with investee company CFOs & investors
• Tax - preparing tax returns + VAT reclaims, tax compliance analysis, FATCA/CRS compliance
• Maintaining and developing quarterly track record models which is vital to our fund-raising programme
• Working closely with the investment team to create case studies
• Portfolio - monitoring investment processes in collaboration with the investment team

Key Challenges:

• Learning the ropes in a rapidly developing business: the business has doubled its asset base and its team in the last 18 months, and plans similar future growth
• Working independently and collaboratively, understanding current priorities and deadlines whilst challenging and creating new ones
• Work effectively across a wide range of projects, including under pressure or occasional tight deadlines
• The role requires the individual to be able to manage multiple tasks simultaneously across a variety of products and work streams

Person Specification:

• Excellent academic record
• ACA or ACCA qualified
• Experience working on private equity or venture capital funds from either: a practice background, OR a fund administration background OR in house at a PE or VC firm

Experience/Skills:

• Excellent organisational skills and advanced Excel skills
• Comfortable handling and analysing large amounts of data
• Excellent communicator by email, over the phone, face-to-face: have an ability to get on with people from all walks of life
• Highly organised
• Energetic and enthusiastic - an acid test: when they appear through the door, or on Zoom, do they raise the team's collective energy
• Self-starter with strong organisational skills, adept at working effectively across multiple projects to meet multiple tight deadlines with minimal supervision
• Ambitious change driver, demonstrating broad experience of taking responsibility and making things happen, so we need someone who is really going to help create and push those changes
• Detail-oriented with strong analytical skills as well as the ability to effectively summarise findings, and clear communication both verbally and in writing to internal audiences and external clients
• Keen on systems - they need to be curious about what solutions are out there to make us work better
• Excellent working in and positively contributing to a team; thirsty for involvement and collaboration with all other team members; keen to collaborate with finance teams in portfolio companies