Fractional financial leadership that took ArrayPatch from plan to a closed round

Client: ArrayPatch
Sector: Clinical-stage biopharma
Location: Cork, Ireland
Engagement: Fractional CFO
Timeframe: 18-month engagement

“Darren acted as a true extension of our team, providing high-calibre financial leadership without the overhead of a full-time hire. His support enabled us to move forward with clarity and confidence.”

About ArrayPatch

ArrayPatch is a clinical-stage biopharma company building toward a defining growth phase. The Cork-based team is developing DerMap, a dissolvable microneedle patch technology designed for pain-free, targeted drug delivery, with its lead candidate in development for nail fungal infection and a wider pipeline spanning dermatology and peptide therapeutics.

Visit ArrayPatch here.

The challenge

To fund the next stage of clinical and GMP manufacturing work, and to open partnering conversations with global pharma companies, ArrayPatch's leadership team needed senior financial firepower they could trust in front of investors and across the deal table.

At their stage, the overhead of a permanent, full-time CFO was hard to justify, yet the financial decisions in front of them were anything but part-time. They needed someone who could structure their financial planning, lead a live fundraise, and bring rigour to evaluating and structuring potential deals — moving at the pace of a founder-led company rather than slowing it down. The fractional executive model offered exactly that: access to high-calibre leadership exactly when and where it was needed.

Our approach

Strategic finance — Darren Cunningham, Fractional CFO

Agile Executives placed a Fractional Chief Financial Officer, Darren Cunningham, into the business as a true extension of the team. Over 18 months he aligned closely with the leadership team's vision and pace of execution, providing high-calibre financial leadership without the cost of a full-time hire.

  • Financial planning: Structured the company's financial planning to support the next stage of clinical and GMP manufacturing work.

  • Live fundraising: Led a live fundraising process and prepared the team to engage investors with confidence.

  • Deal structuring: Brought rigour to evaluating and structuring potential deals, strengthening ArrayPatch's position in partnering discussions with pharmaceutical companies.

Along the way, ArrayPatch also took to the stage at one of Agile Executives' Pitch to Scale investor events, sharing their story with our network of investors and business leaders.

Why fractional works

ArrayPatch's story highlights the power of fractional CFO leadership:

  • Immediate impact: Fast access to senior-level financial talent without recruitment delays.

  • Flexible engagement: Expertise scaled to meet ArrayPatch's evolving demands, without the fixed cost of a full-time hire.

  • Integrated support: Agile Executives operated as an extension of the leadership team, in the room for the decisions that mattered most.

The outcome

With senior financial leadership embedded in the business, ArrayPatch moved forward with clarity and confidence rather than guesswork. The engagement helped the company close a €3M funding round, putting capital in the bank to drive the next phase of growth.

  • ArrayPatch closed a €3M funding round to fund its next phase of growth.

  • The company advanced its clinical and GMP manufacturing strategy.

  • ArrayPatch strengthened its position in partnering activity with pharmaceutical companies — all without carrying the fixed cost of a full-time executive.

In short: a closed round, a stronger negotiating position, and a leadership team that could make big decisions with conviction, exactly when the business needed it most.

Client testimonial

“Darren acted as a true extension of our team, providing high-calibre financial leadership without the overhead of a full-time hire. His support enabled us to move forward with clarity and confidence.”

— Waleed Faisal, CEO, ArrayPatch

This is what fractional leadership looks like in practice: experienced executives delivering strategic impact exactly when a business needs it most.