What do the latest venture investment numbers tell us about how startups are operating today? According to the latest data from Carta, an ownership and equity management platform, many companies beyond the seed stage are kicking the can down the road, often raising smaller bridge rounds instead of raising a full, new round.

“At least 40% of all investments in Series A and Series B companies were bridge rounds in Q1, the highest figures of the 2020s,” it announced in a new report. That trend is even more pronounced for later-stage companies, according to Peter Walker, head of insights at Carta.

“There are so few Series D rounds happening that the majority of the ones that are taking place are some form of extension bridge,” he told CFO Brew.

And for those that are raising a full round, nearly 20% are down rounds, “the highest proportion since at least 2018,” according to the report.

Holding it close. This comes amid a trend in recent years in which more and more late-stage companies have opted to stay private rather than push for an IPO. In North America in recent years, there has been a 500% increase in the number of private companies that have reached unicorn status, according to research from the National Foundation for American Policy, a reflection of increasing startup valuations and companies staying private longer.

Continue reading.—SW

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are still in the early stages of development, and it is not clear how these tools will change the finance function. However the technology is implemented and operationalized, at the moment, there are not enough skilled people with the combination of finance and data skills to meet the change, Ashok Manthena, founder of ChatFin and a speaker and author on AI, told an audience at AICPA & CIMA’s CFO Conference last week.

The AI future likely means the creation of a hybrid position, a combination of financial analyst and data analyst, within the finance function, according to Manthena.

“This is the role that is going to come in: finance data scientists,” he said.

Start studying. But the current data skill sets of finance professionals aren’t there yet, Manthena said.

“What I’ve seen in the last few years, because I tried to hire a lot of data scientists with finance knowledge, you can’t really find any data scientists with finance knowledge,” he said. “The solution is finance people getting trained on data science. This has to be done.”

Continue reading.—DA

We’re mixing things up a little for this week’s Coworking, because we’re crazy silly like that at CFO Brew. This week we’re talking to Courtney Vien, who joined us as CFO Brew’s new senior reporter last month.

Courtney spent more than eight years at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA & CIMA) as a writer and editor, covering topics including personal financial planning, accounting practice management, and career development. Her last role there was as editor-in-chief of The Journal of Accountancy, where she directed the magazine’s coverage of all things finance and accounting.

In your work with The Journal of Accountancy and as you start reporting for CFO Brew, what do you see as the most pressing issues facing finance professionals and accountants right now?

Basically, the pace of change, keeping up with technology, keeping up with macroeconomic trends. Just dealing with global shocks like the pandemic, [or] the war in Ukraine. They’ve got to make high-stakes predictions about how these changes are going to affect their organizations. It’s a lot to take in, and it’s ever-changing on top of the day-to-day work that they already have to do.

When you talk to finance and accounting professionals, what are they saying are their top concerns?

Technology: keeping up with it and implementing it. They say that it helps them a lot but that it also makes their jobs different. They have to be analysts now—more analytical and less programmatic. Talent is always a concern: finding and keeping the right staff, especially accounting staff. And keeping up with the pace of change, being nimble, and adapting to new things that are thrown their way all the time.

Keep reading.—DA

Today’s top finance reads.

Stat: $300 million. That’s how much Netflix plans to reduce expenses this year after it held off on its password-sharing crackdown. But we know loyal CFO Brew readers all have their own passwords, right? (the Wall Street Journal)

Quote: “America leads the world in technological innovation. But the sad reality is that our tech ecosystem is extremely concentrated. There’s so much more potential for tech innovation all across the country. In the US, we have the best research institutions in the world. That’s indisputable. And frankly, many of them are in America’s heartland, far from the coast.”—US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, while announcing a $10 billion investment in Midwestern tech hubs. (CNBC)

Read: Politics are a minefield for organizations and there are no easy answers for avoiding controversy. (the New York Times)

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