Investment decisions demand rigour — and the time to do it properly is before the deal closes, not after. We provide comprehensive financial, tax, and operational due diligence backed by experience across 30+ engagements.
Talk to usEvery deal carries information asymmetry. The question is how much of it you can close before you sign.
Deal windows are short. Founders get impatient. Other buyers may be circling. The pressure to move fast is real — but so is the cost of missing a material issue that surfaces six months post-close. Speed and rigour need to coexist, which requires a team that has done this many times before.
Audited accounts only tell part of the story. Related-party transactions at non-arm's-length terms, revenue recognised on cash basis that won't survive an accrual restatement, off-balance-sheet liabilities, inflated EBITDA through one-off items — these require forensic reading, not just a review of the audit report.
Historic GST non-compliance, TDS defaults, transfer pricing issues, and undisclosed tax demands can represent material contingent liabilities that the seller has not disclosed — or is not even aware of. These need to be surfaced, quantified, and either resolved pre-close or reflected in deal structure and pricing.
Once the deal closes, the real work begins. Portfolio companies often lack the finance infrastructure to produce the reporting investors need — monthly MIS, board packs, cash flow visibility. Building that function from scratch, or finding a finance partner who can step in quickly, is a recurring challenge for investors post-close.
We cover every track of due diligence under one roof, and can continue as a finance partner to the portfolio company post-investment.
We examine the quality of earnings — distinguishing recurring from one-off revenue, identifying adjustments to reported EBITDA, and reconstructing a normalised P&L that reflects economic reality rather than accounting presentation. We assess balance sheet integrity, working capital requirements, net debt position, and any off-balance-sheet items or contingent liabilities that affect enterprise value. Our output is a findings report structured around issues that matter to the investment decision.
We review the target's historic tax compliance across all applicable heads — income tax, GST, TDS, customs — identifying open assessments, pending demands, potential exposures, and structuring risks. We quantify contingent tax liabilities and advise on how these should be treated in deal pricing, representations and warranties, or indemnity provisions. We also assess the tax efficiency of the proposed deal structure and flag any restructuring required pre-close.
We assess the operational and management infrastructure behind the financials — the robustness of internal controls, the quality of management information systems, key-man dependencies, vendor and customer concentration risks, and the reliability of the processes that generate the numbers. Operational DD surfaces risks that don't appear in financial statements but directly affect the business's ability to perform post-acquisition.
We provide independent business valuations using methodology appropriate to the business and transaction context — discounted cash flow (DCF), comparable company multiples, precedent transaction analysis, or asset-based approaches. Valuations are prepared in accordance with ICAI valuation standards and are suitable for transaction negotiation, regulatory filings, ESOP pricing, fairness opinions, or dispute resolution.
We advise on the optimal structure for a transaction from a tax and legal standpoint — asset purchase versus share purchase, merger versus slump sale, holding company structures, earn-out mechanics, and escrow arrangements. We also review Share Purchase Agreements and related transaction documents for financial and tax provisions, flagging terms that create exposure or that warrant renegotiation before signing.
Post-investment, we are available to step in as Virtual CFO for portfolio companies on a standalone basis — building the finance function, setting up MIS reporting, managing statutory compliance, and providing the financial oversight that investors need without requiring the portfolio company to hire a full-time CFO at an early stage. This is structured as an independent engagement and can be initiated at any point post-close.
We help investors establish a consistent reporting framework across portfolio companies — standardised MIS templates, quarterly board pack formats, and KPI dashboards that allow meaningful comparison across the portfolio. For individual investee companies, we produce monthly investor updates, track actuals against the investment thesis, and flag material deviations early so investors can engage proactively rather than reactively.
Our team has conducted financial, tax, and operational due diligence across 30+ transactions — spanning technology, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and consumer businesses. That breadth of exposure means we know what to look for, what questions to ask, and where the risk tends to hide in each type of business.*
Financial, tax, and operational due diligence are conducted by a single coordinated team — not farmed out across separate firms. This eliminates the handoff gaps and communication lag that arise when financial DD and tax DD are run independently, and produces a consolidated findings report that tells a single coherent story about the target.
Having worked closely with founders and operators across sectors in our prior engagements, we understand how a business looks from the inside — which sharpens our ability to read between the lines during diligence. Post-deal, investors looking for financial oversight of a portfolio company can engage us as VCFO on a standalone basis, bringing the same rigour and depth we apply during the DD process.
* These figures represent the collective professional experience of our team members from their individual practices and prior engagements, brought together under Aneri R Shah & Associates.
Share the sector, deal size, and timeline — we'll outline the scope, approach, and what we'd need from the target to get started. We're set up to move quickly when timelines are tight.