Red Iron Group Announces Strategic Investment in Graphite Financial to Accelerate Expansion and Reinforce Market Leadership

MENLO PARK, Calif. and NEW YORK, May 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Red Iron Group, a Menlo Park-based private investment firm, today announced a significant growth investment in Graphite Financial Group, LLC ("Graphite" or "the Company"). In connection with this announcement, Red Iron and Graphite also announced its acquisition of CPM Advisory Group, LLC ("CPM"), with CPM's business to be combined with Graphite. The three firms came together around a unified vision for driving Graphite's continued rapid expansion with enhanced investment in services, technology solutions and capabilities for its national client base.

Graphite is a leading provider of fractional finance and accounting services focused on supporting early-stage and growth-stage businesses. The Company's acquisition of CPM will further expand its service portfolio with market-leading financial reporting, planning and analytics capabilities.

Going forward, the combined business will continue to be led by Paul Bianco, Founder and CEO of Graphite, and both the Graphite and CPM teams will remain shareholders alongside Red Iron Group. As part of these transactions, Chris Mossa, Founder and CEO of CPM, has made a significant investment in the combined business and has joined Graphite's executive team.

Significant Investment Builds on Market Leadership

"The significant investment we received from Red Iron Group, along with the combination of CPM with Graphite, serves as a major inflection point in our company's ongoing development as a leading provider of fractional finance and accounting services for early-stage and growth-stage companies," said Paul Bianco.

Mr. Bianco continued, "Red Iron is an ideal long-term equity partner for Graphite. With the financial backing, strategic relationships and growth planning expertise our partnership with Red Iron Group provides us, we are positioned to reinforce our founding vision: Being a trusted partner to entrepreneurs by providing deep insights and perspective gained from our best-in-class finance and accounting capabilities. We take great pride in being the partner of choice for entrepreneurs by providing them hands-on, thoughtful service and financial information, so they can fully focus on innovation and expansion. We are thrilled to partner with Red Iron and the CPM team to elevate Graphite's business and achieve our full potential."

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in New York, NY, Graphite's core services include cost-effective bookkeeping, accounting, strategic finance and CFO-level advisory services to high-growth companies across sectors including SaaS, eCommerce, Web3, Fintech, Healthcare, Education, CPG, and Manufacturing.

Unique Service Model Enables Company Founders to Focus on Growth

Utilizing a fractional yet fully integrated engagement model, Graphite's team brings deep accounting, CFO and industry experience to its clients, enabling founders to focus on their people, products and customers. Leveraging best-in-class technology and domain expertise, Graphite enables clients to scale rapidly and make more informed, data-driven and timely financial decisions.

"This represents an exciting new chapter for CPM, our clients and our employees," said Mr. Mossa. "This combination will allow us to leverage Graphite's world-class capabilities and resources, positioning us to build deeper partnerships with our clients across a broader service portfolio. We also feel strong cultural alignment with our commitment to supporting entrepreneurs in building great businesses and accelerating our founding vision of liberating founders from non-core, yet mission-critical functions." 

"We are delighted to support Graphite in reaching the next stage of its growth trajectory," said Ben Bisconti, Co-CEO of Red Iron Group. "We are committed to a thesis we share with Paul and the Graphite team around building a world-class business focused on delivering essential services to entrepreneurs as they themselves build great businesses. The opportunity to drive further success for the Company with the addition of Chris' world-class team and customer relationships is a great first step in our partnership with Graphite."

The investment in Graphite is consistent with Red Iron Group's strategic focus on partnering with founders and operators building market-leading businesses with a focus on investing in service differentiation, technology enablement and selectively pursuing inorganic growth opportunities. 

About Graphite Financial

Graphite Financial is a leading outsourced strategic finance and accounting partner for early-stage and growth-stage businesses. The team is composed of CFOs, accountants, investors and entrepreneurs who have helped hundreds of startups scale from seed through exit. Graphite goes far beyond bookkeeping, providing full accounting, financial modeling and FP&A capabilities, as well as tax and compliance services, to their clients. The Company offers a full finance department as a service at a fraction of the cost of hiring a team in-house. By leveraging top finance talent alongside a best-in-class scalable technology stack, Graphite delivers real-time reporting and actionable analytics to founders and operators focused on managing growth and scale. Graphite has been purpose-built to serve entrepreneurs and deliver excellence in finance and accounting to its partners.

Learn more at www.graphitefinancial.com.

About CPM Advisory Group

CPM Advisory Group is a complete finance solution for early-stage and venture-backed startups. CPM's fractional finance department delivers high-caliber accounting and finance support to entrepreneurs and management teams building scalable, high-growth companies. The company's services support its clients in managing fundraising, capital allocation, reporting and financial and operational performance. CPM's comprehensive solution allows founders to focus on what matters most: their product, talent and customers.

Learn more at www.cpmadvisory.com.

About Red Iron Group

Red Iron Group is a private investment firm that partners with business owners and managers who are passionate about building market-leading businesses. The firm helps businesses achieve increased scale and business value through investments in organic growth initiatives, strategic acquisitions and deeper customer relationships. Toward this end, Red Iron Group leverages its extensive Silicon Valley roots and helps its portfolio companies invest in and implement technology enablement and adoption strategies that deliver greater organic growth and operating efficiencies. Red Iron Group has established a uniquely long-term capital base with a strategy of focusing on profitably growing lower-middle-market companies across a wide range of sectors. Learn more at www.redirongroup.com.  

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SOURCE Red Iron Group