About the Company
Keyo allows anyone to prove who they are and access what is theirs with a wave of their hand. Their patented hardware and software map the unique patterns of your palm and encrypt your data at enrollment, so you can open doors, pay at stores, redeem tickets and more without phones, cards or keys.
The Opportunity: Manage Cash Burn & Prepare for the Next Stage
As a startup working on both software and hardware, Keyo had to carefully manage their runway and burn rate while developing products and ensuring compliance in areas like tax regulations, certifications and shipping. Their goal was to develop the infrastructure to scale and secure the next round of funding.
The company needed to build more sophisticated financial processes, documentation and forecasting mechanisms they needed to support their growth and product development. “Back in 2016, we were just getting started and the team was small,” says Andrée Urcuyo, Director of Operations, Supply Chain. “Often it was me and the founders in a room nailing down processes for finance.”
The Solution: Establish Financial Processes & Growth Infrastructure
To better free up bandwidth and resources for development, Keyo chose fractional financial support.
Keyo’s initial engagement with Paro, in 2016-2017, was for fractional accounting services. As the company evolved, so did their financial needs. In 2018, Keyo leveraged their relationship with Paro to locate and retain Roger, a Paro expert and fractional CFO.
Roger played an instrumental role in establishing previously non-existent financial processes and documentation at Keyo. This included creating approval workflows, ensuring state and tax compliance, properly accounting for R&D tax write-offs related to their hardware products and maintaining tax records. Roger helped develop pricing models and forecasts for Keyo’s current and future products.
“A lot of Roger’s work was building processes that did not previously exist: writing the documentation; creating an approval process for due diligence; assessing tax compliance and certifications.”
Andrée Urcuyo, Director of Operations, Supply Chain.
With his broad experience working with both large and small-scale companies, Roger helped Keyo navigate the journey from startup to scaleup. He established a cadence of weekly finance meetings and worked closely with Urcuyo to shape the company’s financial strategy and manage cash burn in anticipation for future funding.
“We needed someone to take us from a startup to the next iteration,” says Urcuyo. “Someone with a real breadth of knowledge. Roger built us a roadmap.”
The Impact: Scalability & Investor Readiness
Roger’s work as fractional CFO helped position Keyo to successfully raise a round of funding from investors. He ensured all financial statements were in order and worked with lawyers to prepare materials like the Carta and investment decks needed for the raise.
“We wouldn’t be in the position to raise funds and have investors without him. From a strategic point of view, that’s why the CFO role is so important: his expertise. He built the infrastructure, and he took us to the next level.”
Andrée Urcuyo, Director of Operations, Supply Chain.
Roger’s financial forecasting and guidance also enabled Keyo to make strategic decisions, such as expanding into the medical sector during the COVID-19 pandemic by adapting their touchless biometric technology for that market. His expertise was crucial in pivoting Keyo’s focus to the right sectors and building out the financial models to support those moves.
As Keyo enters their next stage of growth, they are transitioning to full-time in-house hires. “This is the next step that needs to happen. The whole process has been very easy and very smooth, which speaks volumes about the tenor of our whole relationship with Paro: easy, smooth, and one we very much liked.”
