An Airwallex Program

Built and Ran Finance Alone Through Significant Growth Across Two Markets

Circular rents premium consumer technology to individuals and businesses on monthly subscriptions, refurbishing devices at each term's end. The Singapore-based, YC-backed startup operates across Singapore and Australia with a capital-intensive model requiring close coordination across finance, operations, data, and commercial teams. Long built the finance function from scratch as an early employee and has continued to lead its development through significant business growth.

She has driven improvements across financial reporting, cash-flow management, financing, and business processes, including shortening the monthly close, strengthening financial discipline, and expanding relationships with vendors and financing partners to support the growing asset base.

Her most structural contribution is the data infrastructure she built with engineering: the finance team now writes SQL directly against the underlying database, and Retool dashboards give business teams self-serve access to borrowing, asset net-book-value, and residual-value data without routing requests through Finance. The result is a finance function that supports decision-making across the organisation, not just reporting.

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Emelia Long

Circular

What Startup Finance 30 is

Finance is one of the most under-leveraged growth levers a startup has.

The best finance leaders don't just keep the books. They extend runway, structure capital that changes what a company can do next, and build the systems that let it scale across borders.

Startup Finance 30 is the first list built to recognise that work. Beginning in 2026 and continuing annually, we name 30 finance leaders at venture-backed, globally ambitious startups. The operators shaping how the next generation of companies grow.

Who's doing the most consequential finance work in the startup world right now?

This list is the answer.

FAQ

More information on how SF30 works.

Who's behind Startup Finance 30?

Startup Finance 30 is published by Airwallex. We built it because we work with globally ambitious companies every day, and the finance leaders driving that growth deserve more recognition than they get. Selection sits with the committee.

Who selects the final 30?

A committee of operating CFOs and finance leaders. They score every candidate against a five-part merit rubric and ratify the final list. See the full selection methodology.

Is there a fee? Can I pay to be included?

No. It's free to enter, and recognition is earned on merit.