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    Due Diligence

    Due diligence is the financial, legal, operational and market examination a buyer or investor runs on a company before committing money to it.

    Capability

    In Growth Strategy: Execute the Deal

    How we help with Due Diligence

    What due diligence actually evaluates, beyond the data room.

    1. Scope it to the decision being made

      A diligence built around what would change the answer, rather than a standard checklist run at standard depth on everything.

    2. Test the numbers against the source

      Revenue traced to contracts and cash, margins rebuilt from the ledger, working capital normalised. Quality of earnings rather than acceptance of the management accounts.

    3. Examine what the numbers do not show

      Customer concentration, key-person dependency, contract terms, statutory exposure and the state of the systems producing the data.

    4. Report findings the way a decision needs them

      Ranked by effect on value and on whether to proceed, with the evidence attached, rather than an undifferentiated list of observations.

    What due diligence actually evaluates, beyond the data room.

    Proof

    What this has actually done

    100+

    Due diligences completed by the firm's due diligence and internal audit lead.

    SRF Capital Studio firm profile, May 2026

    FAQ

    Questions founders ask about Due Diligence

    What does due diligence cover?

    Financial, legal, operational, tax and commercial examination of a business before money commits to it. The financial work usually dominates, but the finding that changes a deal is as often a contract term or a customer concentration.

    How long does a due diligence take?

    For a growth-stage Indian company, typically three to six weeks once the data room is populated. The main determinant is not the size of the business, it is the state of its records.

    Who commissions this, the buyer or the seller?

    Both. A buyer commissions diligence to decide and to price. A seller commissions vendor diligence to find problems first and to run a faster process. We do both, on either side.

    What is quality of earnings?

    Rebuilding reported profit into the profit that is actually sustainable and repeatable, by stripping out one-offs, normalising for owner costs and correcting recognition. It is usually where a deal's price is really decided.

    What our research says about Due Diligence

    Financial DD tests what the company has been. Commercial DD tests what the company is, and whether the business model survives serious examination.

    CA Mallavarjalla Mounika, in Commercial DD: Testing the Business Model Under Scrutiny

    An investor's due diligence is not a formality at the end of a deal. It is where the story told in the pitch meets the evidence in the records, and where negotiating leverage moves, one finding at a time.

    CA Mallavarjalla Mounika, in Don't wait for the investor to find the problems. Find and fix them before the investor does.

    The people behind Due Diligence

    Due Diligence is run by the studio team: one multidisciplinary team whose pods work in tandem, matched to the sector and the stage the company is in.

    CA Mallavarjalla Mounika

    Due Diligence pod

    Led by CA Mallavarjalla Mounika

    Lead - Due Diligence & Assurance. Assesses risks and investment readiness.

    See the pod structure
    Studio TeamThe operators, investors and builders who run engagements end to end.Meet them

    Where we apply Due Diligence: the industries this capability serves

    What usually runs alongside this