David Kay, Management Consultant in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
David is available for hire
Hire David

David Kay

Verified Expert  in Management Consulting

Finance Expert

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Toptal member since October 26, 2022

Expertise
Financial ModelingManagement AccountingFintechPrivate EquityFundraising
Bio

David is a chartered accountant and PwC alumni with exceptional financial and modeling skillsets, combined with an innovative and creative thinking process. As head of BD and Innovation and later as CEO, he helped build a USD55+ million fintech B2B lending company. David freelances as a finance and strategy expert and helps businesses solve complex problems with practical and effective solutions.

Career Highlights

CEO
Business Fuel
Head of Business Development and Innovation Lead
Business Fuel
Assurance Manager
PwC

Education Highlights

Degree (Honors)
University of Kwa-Zulu Natal
Bachelor's Degree
University of Stellenbosch

Case Studies

Expertise

  • Data Analytics
  • Excel 365
  • Financial Modeling
  • Forecasting
  • Process Design
  • Startups
  • System Implementation

Work Experience

CEO

2021 - 2022
Business Fuel
  • Grew the loan book by 50% yearly, with 30% life-to-date disbursements within the last financial year and the most profitable year.
  • Achieved reaching $55 million milestones in disbursements.
  • Developed the medium and long-term strategic plan for the business. This included the what, how, and why of product development, staffing, funding, and technological requirements to achieve these.
  • Drove continued tech, analytics, and process improvements, resulting in significant growth of customers with less than equal increases in resources.
  • Established and led the executive committee to drive development and implementation plans for the operational infrastructure, systems, processes, and personnel to accommodate rapid growth objectives.
Focus areas: Leadership, Boards, Strategy, Innovation, Funding Strategy, Forecasting, Financial Modeling, Revenue & Expense Projections

Head of Business Development and Innovation Lead

2017 - 2021
Business Fuel
  • Built company forecast models, and intricate loan book forecast models, which adapted long-term projections based on real-time data. This included the added complexity of securing loans through SPV and JV structures.
  • Co-presented and co-compiled funding presentation decks for successful series A external debt funding round.
  • Built the credit scoring models and scorecards used to assess SME credit risk based primarily on transactional cashflow data. This is the primary intellectual property of the business.
  • Developed the algorithms used to auto-clean and classify transactional data from raw bank statements used in credit risk scoring. This reduced preparation time from hours to a few minutes in a standardized, secure, and automated process.
  • Co-designed the system architecture to centralize all credit application data into an SQL server, allowing for incorporation into the data warehouse, analysis cubes, and repeat learning processes to improve data manipulation algorithms.
  • Sourced and implemented the loan management system. This included integrations with national banks for automatic disbursements, collections, and reconciliations.
  • Managed all marketing and business development-related functions such as budgeting, agency management, brand, above-the-line marketing, digital marketing, and campaign design.
  • Developed the analytic data models for sales and marketing, customer journey waterfalls, and loan application outcomes, creating the foundation for the company's front and back-end data collection and statistics.
  • Developed broker and affiliate program, including creating tools, contractual frameworks, sourcing, and onboarding, with onboarding circa 300 brokers onto the platform.
Focus areas: Data Analytics, Marketing, Paid Advertising, New Business Development, Fundraising, Financial Modeling, Forecasting, System Design, Process Design, System Implementation, Credit Scores, Credit Risk, Digitization, Data Architecture, Algorithms, Revenue & Expense Projections

Operations Manager and Fund Administration

2014 - 2016
JTC
  • Restructured the operational processes of accounting services for the team, from capture at reporting period to capture in real-time. In effect, the average month-end NAV preparation for the team was reduced from a week to a few hours.
  • Implemented reporting services system. This automated preparing and distributing of capital transaction notices and other relevant investor communications. Delivery times were reduced from at least a full business day to under an hour.
  • Developed system-generated IRR calculation and reporting for investment portfolios of closed-ended fund structures.
  • Designed and implemented tracking and reporting systems for closed-ended fund structures necessary for FATCA, CDOT, and CRS reporting.
Focus areas: Accounting, Investran, Investor Reporting, Investor Relations

Assurance Manager

2012 - 2014
PwC
  • Launched and chaired the environmental impact committee and served on the corporate social responsibility committee.
  • Rated as exceptional in upwards performance reviews by the senior associates.
  • Managed the audit of the claims system migration of the most significant short-term insurer on the island. Despite this additional complexity, the audit was completed in a shorter time than in prior years when I had not managed the audit.
Focus areas: Accounting, Auditing, Leadership, Hedge Funds, Private Equity, P&C Insurance

Senior Associate

2010 - 2011
PwC
  • Rated as the top performing audit associate for my year in 2010.
  • Appointed as a key project team member to migrate the jurisdictional office from a legacy audit file software to a new solution.
  • Balanced work across both the insurance as well as the hedge fund divisions. I was the only senior associate to work in both primary office divisions.
Focus areas: Accounting, Auditing, Private Equity, Hedge Funds, P&C Insurance

Audit Supervisor and Article Clerk

2007 - 2010
PKF International
  • Trained junior article clerks as lecturers at annual offsite conferences.
  • Audited a wide range of clients and industries, ranging from owner-managed businesses to large corporates.
  • Scored in the highest rating band in bi-annual performance reviews.
  • Passed all CA qualifier SAICA examinations on first attempt.
Focus areas: Accounting

Education

2006 - 2006

Degree (Honors) in Accounting

University of Kwa-Zulu Natal - KZN, South Africa

2002 - 2005

Bachelor's Degree in Management Accounting

University of Stellenbosch - Stellenbosch, South Africa

Certifications

OCTOBER 2022 - PRESENT

Mastering Design Thinking

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

AUGUST 2022 - PRESENT

Microsoft Power Platform Fundamentals

Microsoft

JUNE 2022 - PRESENT

Machine Learning for All

University of London

JUNE 2022 - PRESENT

Game Theory

Stanford University

FEBRUARY 2018 - PRESENT

Oxford Fintech Programme

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

JANUARY 2009 - PRESENT

Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)

Skills

Finance

Accounting, Management Accounting, Financial Modeling, Forecasting, Credit Risk, Revenue & Expense Projections, Funding Strategy, Fundraising, Private Equity, Taxation

Output Software

Investran

Other

Excel 365, Excel VBA, Finance, Strategy, Innovation, Process Design, Channel Management, Budget Modeling, Auditing, Statistical Modeling, Information Systems, Design Thinking, Pitch Decks, Customer Insights, Product Design, Service Design, Fintech, Leadership, Boards, Data Analytics, Marketing, Paid Advertising, New Business Development, System Design, System Implementation, Digitization, Data Architecture, Sales, Investor Reporting, Investor Relations, Startups, Hedge Funds, Confluence, Microsoft Power Platform, Corporate Law, Credit Scores, Algorithms, Waterfall Modeling, P&C Insurance

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring