Treasury redesign that turned idle cash into a $4.1M annualized yield engine
A Series C fintech sitting on $220M of post-raise cash in a checking account earning 0.05% APY. We built a treasury policy, an operating-cash framework, and a yield ladder, then ran it through three Fed pivots without touching working capital.
- $220M in cash earning 0.05% APY against a 5.25% Fed funds environment, ~$11.5M of foregone yield annualized.
- No treasury policy document; investment committee did not formally exist.
- Operating cash, strategic reserve, and M&A capacity treated as one pool with no segmentation.
- Single banking relationship; counterparty concentration risk above any reasonable policy threshold.
- Three Fed pivots inside the engagement window required active duration management, not a set-and-forget structure.
Cash segmentation
Segmented $220M into operating (90 days), tactical (90 days–18 months), and strategic (18+ months) buckets based on a probabilistic cash-need model.
Treasury policy & IC
Drafted a treasury policy ratified by the audit committee, established a 4-person investment committee with monthly cadence and quarterly board reporting.
Yield ladder construction
Built a laddered structure across T-bills, government money market funds, and short-duration treasury ETFs. Counterparty exposure capped at 25% per institution.
Active duration management
Re-laddered through three rate-cycle pivots without disrupting operating cash. Duration shortened ahead of the first cut and lengthened selectively when the curve inverted.
A US-based consumer fintech post-Series C, sitting on $220M of cash following an oversubscribed round. The previous treasury policy was a single line: 'Keep it safe.' Cash was parked in a non-interest-bearing checking account at the company's primary banking partner. The CFO had budgeted treasury yield at zero, the board had stopped asking, and the FP&A team had no framework for what counted as operating versus strategic cash.
- Month 1
Diagnostic & policy draft
Cash-need model built; segmentation thresholds set. Treasury policy v1 drafted and circulated.
- Month 2
IC stood up
Investment committee chartered. First meeting ratified policy and approved initial counterparty list.
- Month 3–4
Initial deployment
$180M deployed across T-bill ladder and government money market funds. Blended yield 5.1% on deployed capital.
- Month 5
First pivot
Fed signal turned dovish. Shortened operating ladder, lengthened strategic ladder selectively. Net yield held at 4.9%.
- Month 7
Second pivot
First cut delivered. Locked tactical bucket into 12-month maturities ahead of further cuts.
- Month 10
Third pivot & handover
Yield ladder rebalanced. Internal treasury analyst hired and trained. CapMaven exits day-to-day; quarterly review touchpoint retained.
- $4.1M of annualized treasury yield captured against a zero-dollar baseline.
- Counterparty concentration brought from 100% to a 25% per-institution cap.
- Survived three rate-cycle pivots without a single working-capital disruption.
- Treasury function institutionalized: policy, IC, board reporting, internal hire.
- Yield contribution now a standing line in board pack; finance team owns the cadence post-handover.
- 01
Treasury yield is the most-ignored P&L line at fintechs and the easiest one to fix.
- 02
Cash segmentation is what makes active duration management safe. Without it, every pivot risks payroll.
- 03
An investment committee is cheap. The discipline it enforces is expensive to skip.
"We had budgeted zero for treasury yield. CapMaven turned the same balance sheet into a four-million-dollar contribution line, and the board started reading the page."
How much cash do you need before this work pays for itself?+
Roughly $25M of strategic cash at current rates. Below that, the time-cost of the framework outweighs the yield captured. Above $50M, it's a board-level dereliction not to run it.
Did this involve any equities, credit, or alternative exposure?+
No. The policy capped permitted instruments at sovereign and government-agency exposure. Yield came from duration laddering and counterparty discipline, not credit risk.
Why a 10-month retainer instead of a project?+
The rate-cycle pivots were the point. A 12-week project can build the ladder; only an ongoing engagement can pivot it credibly without disrupting operating cash.
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