Finance Manager

Start2 Group is a global innovation leader taking your startup journey to the next level. As a premier startup ecosystem platform, Start2 Group serves as the ultimate destination for growth-oriented startups, corporations, investors, and governments to shape and scale ventures with growth potential.

Founded in 2008, Start2 Group has consistently played a pivotal role in the success stories of thousands of startups, guiding them seamlessly from initial fundraising to global expansion. We operate in key markets across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East, shaping the future of innovation on a global scale.

We are looking for a Finance Manager tooversees finance across Asia entities, managing outsourced accounting providers and ensuring accurate, timely reporting in line with Group standards and local statutory requirements. The role also manages grant and public-funded programme compliance, including cost eligibility, fund allocation, documentation, and audits. In addition, it owns regional management reporting, cash flow forecasting, and budgeting. The ideal candidate is a qualified accountant who can independently manage regional finance operations and ensure strong financial governance across markets.

The responsibilities outlined below are not exhaustive and can include other related tasks. The Finance Manager will from time-to-time work for other projects as the company requires.

Role and Responsibilities

Grant and publicly funded programme accounting

• Own the financial administration of publicly funded and grant-supported programmes across Asia, including the German Accelerator ministry mandate and other government, agency or institutional funding.
• Apply and monitor cost-eligibility rules per funding instrument, maintain defensible cost allocation and apportionment methods for shared cost, personnel time and overhead with documented basis for each, and advise programme and delivery leads before commitment on eligibility and the reporting impact of delivery changes.
• Prepare and submit funder reports, interim and final claims, and drawdown requests to each funder's deadline and format, maintain the audit trail to the standard the funder requires, and track each funding agreement's compliance calendar (reporting dates, claim windows, mandate periods, renewals).
• Lead grant and mandate audits and funder reviews, including auditor-of-record and ministry- appointed audit, resolve findings, quantify clawback and disallowance exposure, and track budget against actual by funded programme, flagging over- and under-spend early and managing reallocation with the funder where permitted.
• Monitor and evidence co-funding, matched-funding and cost-share obligations.
• Provide financial input to grant applications, tender responses and mandate renewals, including budgets, cost models and cost-recovery assumptions.

Outsourced provider management and close

• Direct the outsourced accounting providers in China, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore, setting close calendars, deliverables and quality expectations for each.
• Review provider output for accuracy, completeness and consistency with Group accounting standards. Challenge and correct treatments that deviate.
• Ensure providers code funded activity in a way that supports grant reporting, so claims are not reconstructed after the fact.
• Run the Asia monthly close, including reconciliations and intercompany balances across the five entities, and deliver the Asia consolidation to Group on schedule.
• Escalate persistent provider performance issues with a recommended remedy, including scope changes or provider replacement.

Reporting, forecasting and planning

• Produce Asia management reporting: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow and supporting analysis, with commentary that explains movement rather than restating figures.
• Own the rolling Asia cash flow forecast, updated on a fixed cycle, incorporating grant drawdown and reimbursement timing, and flagging shortfalls with enough lead time to act.
• Lead the annual Asia budget and quarterly reforecast, working with entity and programme leads.
• Maintain the Asia reporting pack, KPIs and dashboards in line with Group requirements, with funded and commercial activity separately visible.

Compliance and controls

• Ensure statutory, tax and regulatory filing obligations are met in each Asia jurisdiction, coordinating providers and auditors.
• Enforce intercompany policy and transfer pricing arrangements across Asia entities, in coordination with Group Finance.
• Maintain internal controls appropriate to an outsourced model, including approval limits, segregation of duties and payment controls, plus the additional control layer grant funding requires, including pre-approval of funded spend and evidence retention.
• Support internal and external audit.
• Flag compliance and jurisdictional risk early, with a recommended course of action.

Commercial project finance and business partnering

• Track cost, revenue and margin by project and client engagement, and report performance against budget to delivery leads.
• Act as finance counterpart to the Asia leadership team, building financial models and scenario analysis for new market entry, new programme formats and resourcing decisions, and providing analysis that supports commercial and operational decisions.
• Identify cost efficiency opportunities and follow them through to realisation.

Process and systems

• Standardise chart of accounts, close procedures and reporting formats across the five Asia entities, including the coding structure that carries grant reporting.
• Improve reporting cycle time and data accuracy, reducing manual handling between providers and Group, and support the finance systems, tooling and automation initiatives that enable this.

Skills Required

• Hands-on administration of publicly funded activity: cost eligibility, apportionment of shared cost between funded and commercial activity, claim preparation, funder reporting and grant audit.
• Experience with public funding instruments and programmes.
• Experience directing and reviewing outsourced accounting providers or shared service teams, including quality control of their output.
• 6 to 9 years in finance or accounting, including ownership of month-end close and consolidation across multiple legal entities and currencies.
• Working knowledge of Singapore financial reporting standards (SFRS), corporate tax and statutory compliance.
• Working exposure to at least one of the China, India, Japan or Korea in statutory, tax or reporting matters.
• Transfer pricing and intercompany charging between Asian and European entities.
• Advanced Excel modelling: multi-entity consolidation, scenario analysis and reporting built from source data.
• Track record of managing external providers and internal stakeholders across Asia and Europe in English.
• CPA, CA, ACCA or equivalent professional accounting qualification.

Preferred

• Experience working with XERO and Joiin.
• Finance leadership in a startup, scale-up or SME without a large support function.
• Experience introducing or upgrading finance systems, reporting tools or automation.
• Audit background with a firm serving multi-entity, cross-border or publicly funded clients.
• FP&A and business partnering supporting commercial growth.

Application

Please submit your CV and a short note covering two things: your experience managing outsourced accounting across more than one jurisdiction, and the publicly funded or grant-supported programmes you have administered.

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.