How to Raise Pre-Seed and Seed Funding in India: A 2026 Guide
Fewer than 1 in 10 Indian startups that raise a pre-seed round go on to close a seed round within 18 months, and the single biggest reason isn’t a weak product — it’s a founder who walked into investor conversations without a defensible valuation or clean financial story. In a market where over 1.5 lakh […]
FEMA Valuation Requirements for Foreign Investment in India
Every rupee of foreign capital that enters or exits an Indian company through equity has to clear one gate first: a FEMA-compliant valuation. Get the pricing wrong — even by a few percentage points — and the RBI can treat the entire transaction as a contravention, triggering compounding penalties years after the money has already […]
Gulf & Saudi Companies: Using India Finance GCCs to Build a World-Class Finance Function
Key Takeaways Gulf and Saudi companies have historically approached India as a market for trade, real estate and infrastructure investment. That is changing. A growing number of CFOs and Group Finance Directors across Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are now looking at India as the location for something closer to home: their own finance […]
Brand Valuation in India: Methods and Use Cases Explained
Under Ind AS 103, any Indian company that acquires another business is legally required to separately identify and value the acquired brand on its balance sheet — yet most founders have never had their own brand formally valued, and often can’t say what it’s worth beyond a gut feeling. That gap becomes expensive the moment […]
Startup Due Diligence Checklist: What Investors Look For
Nearly every term sheet in India carries an invisible clause: the deal isn’t real until due diligence says so. Founders who treat this stage as a formality routinely watch valuations get renegotiated — or offers withdrawn entirely — once an investor’s diligence team starts asking for documents that don’t exist. A startup due diligence checklist […]
How to Design an ESOP Scheme for Your Startup in India
Most Indian startups carve out 10–15% of their cap table for an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, yet a large share of founders still copy a template scheme from a friend’s startup and hope it holds up at due diligence. A poorly designed ESOP scheme doesn’t just create legal exposure under the Companies Act — it […]
Finance GCC Transformation: Signs Your Existing Finance Centre Needs a Strategic Reset
Key Takeaways A large number of Finance GCCs operating in India today were set up between 2019 and 2023, during the period when captive finance centres moved from a niche idea to a mainstream CFO strategy. Many of those centres are now three to five years old, past their initial setup phase and into steady-state […]
UK CFOs: Setting Up a Finance GCC in India — Key Considerations for 2026
Key Takeaways UK companies have been building offshore and captive finance capability in India for more than two decades, but the model has changed. What used to be a transactional finance outsourcing decision is now a genuine capability strategy. CFOs and Group Finance Directors at UK-headquartered companies are setting up Finance Global Capability Centres, or […]
Valuation Under Companies Act 2013 India
Business Valuation Under Companies Act 2013: A Founder’s Guide Section 247 of the Companies Act 2013 made a sweeping change that most founders discover too late: independent valuation by a Registered Valuer is now mandatory for dozens of corporate transactions — and non-compliance can invalidate the transaction itself. If you are a founder or CFO […]
10 Things Founders Must Know Before Their Series A Valuation
Nearly 70% of Indian founders walk into Series A discussions without a professionally prepared valuation — and most end up either leaving money on the table or losing the deal entirely. If you’re approaching investors for your first institutional round, understanding how startup valuation for Series A in India actually works isn’t optional — it’s […]