George O'Kane Serrano

Bogotá - Bogota, Colombia

Member since July 3, 2017

George is a CFA with 9+ years' combined PE, VC, IB, and senior executive experience. He's the current founder and managing director of Alpha IB, a boutique investment bank focused on advisory. Prior to Alpha, he was CFO of an Edtech startup where he raised USD $10 million to scale the company regionally and launch a ground-breaking product. George received his bachelor's degree in management and a master's degree in finance from UMass Boston.

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Career Highlights

Founder and Managing Partner
Alpha Investment Banking
CFO & Board Member
Aulas Amigas SAS

Education

Master's degree
University of Massachusetts

Select Certifications

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
CFA Institute

Case studies

M&A Deal Transportation
- M&A Modeling
- Private Equity
- Transportation & Shipping
Car Dealership
- Company Building
- Specialty Finance
- Financial Modeling
6 Airport Concession
- infraestructure
- Financial Modeling
- M&A (Buy-side)
- Project Finance
Seed Stage Fintech
- Fintech
- Venture Capital
- Financial Modeling
- Fundraising
Series A Logistics Marketplace
- Series A
- Venture Capital
- Financial Modeling
- Logistics
Chocolate Company - Minority Sale
- Food
- Private Equity
- Financial Modeling
- Valuation
Cannabis Startup - Minority Investment
- Cannabis
- Financial Modeling
- Valuation
- Fundraising
Seed Stage Edtech Startup
- Education Technology (Edtech)
- Financial Modeling
- Fundraising
Retail - Minority Investment
- Retail & Wholesale
- Financial Modeling
- Valuation
- Private Equity

Industry Expertise

Startups
Venture Capital

Other Expertise

Early-stage Venture Capital
Financial Modeling
Fundraising
Latam
Private Equity
Valuation

Employment

Founder and Managing Partner
2018 - PRESENT
Alpha Investment Banking
- Served key leadership roles in the transaction origination process, having successfully originated 25+ projects in 18 months of operation.
- Led and closed both buy-side and sell-side mandates across the region.
- Maintained client relations during the deal origination period and building industry-specific or product-specific expertise.
- Served clients in industries such as logistics, tech (marketplaces, SaaS, and eCommerce), fintech, edTech, food, specialty finance, retail, petcare, biotech, and commodity-related industries.
- Developed and executed the company’s business strategies aimed at growing revenues by 300% in 2019.
- Executed on key responsibilities including financial modeling, market materials, market research, fundraising, and overall client delivery.
Focus areas: Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Financial Advisory, Budgeting, Financial Modeling, Valuation Analysis, Free Cash Flow (FCF), Capital Raising, Debt Structuring, Financial Structuring, Financial Engineering, Financial Management, Capital Structuring, Fundraising, Market Research, Corporate Finance
CFO & Board Member
2015 - 2017
Aulas Amigas SAS
- Grew Aulas Amigas sales by over 300% in roughly 3 years as CFO. Aulas Amigas is a fast-growing edtech company focused on providing both software and hardware tools for K-12 LATAM educators.
- Raised approximately $10 million USD through various fundraising rounds and instruments (equity, debt, mezzanine, and convertibles).
- Structured, negotiated and closed local expansion capital to scale Aulas Amigas's business model in Mexico, Ecuador and a small pilot in India.
- Developed a budgeting and KPI system which directly contributed to EBITDA margins growing from 14% to 31%.
- Structured and closed a third party financing partnership for a B2C commercial strategy, essentially making channel operations cash flow positive, recurring, and scalable.
Focus areas: Budgeting, Financial Strategy, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Cash Management, Fundraising, Financial Reporting, Investment Monitoring, Accounting Management, Financial Modeling, Cash Flow Forecasting, Budget Forecasting, P&L Forecasting, Corporate Finance
Senior Associate, Andean Market
2014 - 2015
Latin America Alternatives
- Developed and evaluated over 50 different private equity and venture capital investment memoranda across Latin America, and executed on 2 deals worth $10 million USD collectively (closely-held family office private equity vehicle).
- Led Andean market pipeline and screened over 30 investment opportunities.
- Developed a proprietary investment screening methodology for scoring fund-level investments.
- Produced economic-, transaction- and portfolio-level reports for family office investors.
- Supported CIO with portfolio reporting and liquidity management decisions.
Focus areas: Private Equity, Early-stage Venture Capital, Financial Modeling, Investment Memoranda, Due Dilligence, Investment Return Scenario Analysis, Private Equity Valuation, Investment Portfolio Management, Portfolio Analysis, Financial Reporting
Associate & Partner
2010 - 2014
BBC Management
- Launched BBC Management (partner and co-founder), a boutique and closely-held asset management and consulting practice with a Latin American geographic focus.
- Developed and evaluated over 80 different private equity and venture capital investment memoranda in Colombia; executed on 3 deals totaling $1 million USD collectively.
- Sourced and created a local pipeline of over 150 growth capital opportunities (taking an industry generalist approach).
- Raised $2 million USD in fund commitments through multiple HNW investors.
- Led multiple market research and consulting projects for a diverse client base (nutrition, biopharma, mining, and retail).
Focus areas: Early-stage Venture Capital, Private Equity, Valuation, Financial Modeling, Due Dilligence, Investment Monitoring, Investment Memoranda, Financial Reporting, Investor Communications, Investor Decks, Market Research, Business Advisory

Education

Master's degree in Finance
2013 - 2014
University of Massachusetts - Boston, Massachusetts
Bachelor's degree in Business Administration
2006 - 2010
University of Massachusetts - Boston, Massachusetts