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Shortlist Report

Which fractional CFOs help prepare a company for fundraising?

Fundraising, Diligence and Exit Support: What The Shortlist Report Finds

5 firms lead, appearing in 15.7–23.8% of 210 AI responses. The sample cannot separate them, so we do not pretend it can.

The Shortlist Report · Published · Updated

No clear leader

No single firm dominates this question. Five come up regularly and they specialise in different things, so the firm worth calling is the one that fits your situation rather than whoever sits highest.

  1. Burkland Associates50 of 210

    Fractional CFO, FP&A, and fundraising support for venture-backed startups, particularly SaaS and tech companies.

  2. Kroll36 of 210

    Provides sell-side transaction advisory including quality of earnings, working capital analysis, and operational due diligence.

  3. Deloitte34 of 210

    Offers full finance-function outsourcing, automation, controllership, and transformation for mid-market and enterprise clients.

  4. Local Fractional33 of 210

    Offers exit planning, quality-of-earnings preparation, valuation, and sell-side advisory for lower-middle-market companies approaching a sale.

  5. The CFO Centre33 of 210

    Operates a network of 750+ part-time CFOs across 18 countries providing fractional CFO services to SMBs and mid-market companies.

210ChatGPT responses
10Firms named
1Question asked
Last measured

Based on 210 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 8, 2026–September 18, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.

The ranking

Share = the percentage of the 210 responses that named the firm. Bars are drawn to the same scale across the table and repeat the number in the share column. Firms within a tier are not distinguishable at this sample size and are listed in no particular order.
FirmResponsesShare
Tier 1 5 firms, 15.7–23.8%
Burkland Associatesburkland.businessFractional CFO, FP&A, and fundraising support for venture-backed startups, particularly SaaS and tech companies.50 of 21023.8%
Krollkroll.comProvides sell-side transaction advisory including quality of earnings, working capital analysis, and operational due diligence.36 of 21017.1%
Deloittedeloitte.comOffers full finance-function outsourcing, automation, controllership, and transformation for mid-market and enterprise clients.34 of 21016.2%
Local Fractionallocalfractional.comOffers exit planning, quality-of-earnings preparation, valuation, and sell-side advisory for lower-middle-market companies approaching a sale.33 of 21015.7%
The CFO CentreOperates a network of 750+ part-time CFOs across 18 countries providing fractional CFO services to SMBs and mid-market companies.33 of 21015.7%
Tier 2 5 firms, 12.4–14.3%
Into The Nextintothenext.comProvides fractional CFO/COO, CEPA-certified exit planning, and M&A advisory to SMBs and businesses planning an exit.30 of 21014.3%
EYProvides finance transformation, accounting operations, and full-cycle consolidation with multi-GAAP reporting for larger companies and complex structures.29 of 21013.8%
Ignition Consultantsignitionconsultants.comProvides fundraising strategy, financial modeling, diligence preparation, and investor support for growth-stage companies approaching capital raises.28 of 21013.3%
Alvarez & Marsalalvarezandmarsal.comProvides operational improvement, transaction advisory, and outsourced equity administration for middle-market and PE-backed companies.26 of 21012.4%
Eide Baillyeidebailly.comSell-side quality of earnings and transaction diligence for lower and middle-market businesses.26 of 21012.4%

Key findings

  1. No firm answers “Which fractional CFOs help prepare a company for fundraising?” reliably in ChatGPT. The most-named, Burkland Associates, appeared in 50 of 210 responses (23.8%) collected August 8, 2026–September 18, 2026, and 4 other firms scored close enough that the sample cannot put any of them in order.
  2. Burkland Associates, Kroll and Deloitte were named most often, in 34–50 of 210 responses. All 5 firms in the leading group are listed with their counts in the table below.
  3. 10 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Which fractional CFOs help prepare a company for fundraising?” in ChatGPT as of September 18, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
  4. Deloitte appears in 6 of the 13 fractional CFO and outsourced accounting firms reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
  5. No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.

Why the tiers fall where they do

Tier 1 holds Burkland Associates, Kroll, Deloitte, Local Fractional and The CFO Centre, named in 33 to 50 of the 210 ChatGPT responses. They are grouped rather than ranked because the gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size — one extra mention would reorder them, so an order would be reporting noise as a finding.

Tier 2 holds Into The Next, EY, Ignition Consultants, Alvarez & Marsal and Eide Bailly, named in 26 to 30 of 210 responses (12.4–14.3%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.

The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 210 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.

What the sample shows

5 firms lead this question: Burkland Associates, Kroll, Deloitte, Local Fractional and The CFO Centre. They appear in 15.7–23.8% of the 210 responses. The gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size, so they are listed together rather than ranked against each other.

224 firms were named at least once across the sample. 10 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.

How to read this

Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.

Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.

The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.

What this measurement does not tell you

  • It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
  • It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected August 8, 2026–September 18, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
  • It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
  • Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.

Cite this report

The Shortlist Report. (2026). Fundraising, Diligence and Exit Support: What The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/cfo-support-fundraising-ma

Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.

Disclosure

No firm paid to appear on this page, and no link here is an affiliate link. Rankings come from measured responses; firms cannot submit, sponsor, or buy placement.

Something wrong on this page? How corrections work. This report is one of 91 covering fractional CFO and outsourced accounting firms — see the full set.