Dubai · Situation
Raising capital in Dubai
Fundraising fails on preparation far more often than on the business. The model does not reconcile to the accounts, the cohort data does not exist, the cap table has an old convertible nobody modelled, and the founder spends the diligence period building things they should have had a year ago.
This is the single most common trigger for a first fractional CFO. The mandate has a defined start and a defined end, and the person who runs it should have sat on the other side of the table.
What this calls for
- A financial model that reconciles to the statutory accounts
- Historic cohort, retention and unit economics data
- A clean cap table with all instruments modelled through to exit
- A data room built before diligence starts, not during it
- Someone who can hold the diligence conversation without the founder in the room
What is specific to United Arab Emirates
- Corporate tax and the audit and transfer-pricing wave behind it created acute demand for a real CFO among owner-managed firms that have never had one — a compliance-triggered, time-boxed need.
- The founder-to-second-generation transition in Dubai’s family businesses needs an outsider with authority to install governance without displacing the family. An interim mandate is politically survivable where a permanent hire is not.
- A full-time expatriate package carries housing, schooling and flights that make a mis-hire an AED 1m+ mistake. Fractional removes the relocation bet and terminates on 30–60 days with no gratuity accrual.
- Authority in Dubai’s large family groups is held personally by the owner or chairman, not by the executive title. A fractional CFO’s first task is often creating a decision framework where none existed, and the mandate is granted informally by the principal long before it appears on an org chart.
The Dubai numbers
Fractional, per monthAED 5,000–10,000/month early-stage; AED 11,000–25,000 for a growth SME at one to three days a week; AED 25,000–40,000+ at three to four days. The practical band for a genuine former CFO is AED 15,000–40,000/month, USD 4,100–10,900, on a six to twelve month retainer.
Full-time, all-inCooper Fitch puts a large-corporate CFO at AED 81,000–122,000/month and an SME CFO at AED 61,000–92,000. All-in for a mid-market CFO or COO including housing, school fees, flights, medical and gratuity: AED 1.1m–1.9m a year, USD 300,000–517,000.
SeveranceMainland end-of-service gratuity after one year: 21 days’ basic wage per year for the first five years, 30 days thereafter, capped at two years’ wage and calculated on basic salary only. DIFC is different — the funded DEWS scheme takes 5.83% of basic wage monthly rising to 8.33% after five years, with no cap.