Ismael is a seasoned tech CFO and the Founder of Caast. He helps founders grow and reach profitability while keeping control and clarity.
Over the last decade Ismael worked across high‑growth fintech and advisory.
He built and led the finance organisation of Fairmoney, a pan‑African/Asian digital bank from Series A (10m€) to Series B (35m€) with an operating stack across France, Nigeria and India, successfully closing and auditing the bank's first IFRS accounts. He joined the startup early as head of finance and employee #8 and contributed to growing the loan portfolio from none to 150m€ while reaching profitability.
Ismael also advised marketplace and SaaS companies as part‑time CFO and co‑founded four40.work, a knowledge graph AI startup, part of Founders cohort 23' at Station F.
He previously worked in M&A, PE/VC and transaction services—investment banking at Lazard, where he advised Orange on the sale of its Kenyan subsidiary; growth/VC at Quadrille Capital, a €1bn+ AUM tech fund, where he contributed to the unicorn round of BlaBlaCar; and transaction services at Mazars, where he advised on 40+ M&A/fundraising transactions for funds and corporate ventures.
An alumnus of Télécom Paris and EURECOM with a master from HEC Paris, Ismael brings a rare blend of deep financial expertise and systems/engineering thinking—designing effective finance processes and decision‑grade data pipelines and agents.
