03Practice 3 of 3
A round is won or delayed in the data room. Capitalisation tables that do not reconcile, ESOP grants without board approval, share issues without a valuation report on file — none is difficult to get right at the time, and each is expensive to remedy under a term sheet. We establish it correctly on day one and maintain it between rounds.
- Incorporation
- Companies Act 2013 · SPICe+
- Recognition
- DPIIT · Startup India
- Startup holiday
- Section 140, Income-tax Act 2025
- FC-GPR
- 30 days from receipt of funds
Who it is for
Founders at incorporation, companies preparing to raise, and startups already holding institutional capital.
What it covers
Incorporation and organisation structure
Placing the company on the register with the registrations it will require in its first year, and settling the founder arrangements while everyone is still in agreement.
- SPICe+ incorporation, with PAN, TAN, EPFO and ESIC in the same form
- Memorandum and articles drafted for the structure you intend
- Founders' and shareholders' agreement, vesting and reverse vesting
- Advice on the holding structure before the first round, not after it
DPIIT recognition and grant assistance
The recognitions and schemes a startup is entitled to, applied for properly. Most applications are refused on documentation rather than on merit.
- DPIIT startup recognition
- Section 140 deduction — the three-year holiday, where eligible
- Startup India Seed Fund and state scheme applications
- Share valuation for a priced round, and the pricing rules that still bind it
Capital structuring and ESOP management
Every issue of shares and every grant of options is a compliance event with a documentary trail. We keep that trail complete, so due diligence finds it already assembled.
- Cap table maintenance across rounds, on a fully diluted basis
- ESOP scheme drafting, board and shareholder approval, grant letters
- Rule 11UA valuation on file before each allotment
- PAS-3, share certificates, and FC-GPR within 30 days of receipt
Legal assistance
The agreements and filings a young company enters into before it has a general counsel — prepared with the tax and compliance consequences already considered, and referred to counsel where a matter requires it.
- Term sheet and shareholders' agreement review
- Commercial contracts, employment and consultancy agreements
- ROC filings, statutory registers and minute books kept current
- Coordination with external counsel on matters that require it
And everything below
Startup Advisory is not a narrower engagement than the practices beneath it. It contains both of them in full — the same work, by the same partners, on the same file.
CFO Advisory
- Incorporation, structuring and restructuring
- An end-to-end finance team
- Payroll advisory and compliance
- Cash, receivables and payables
- Internal control audit
- Valuation and fundraising
- Mergers and acquisitions
Core CA Practice
- Bookkeeping and accounting
- GST — monthly and annual
- TDS — quarterly and annual
- Financial statements
- Income tax returns
- Audit reports
- Provisional and projected statements
What you receive
- The incorporation file: certificate, PAN, TAN, every registration
- A capitalisation table that reconciles to the register of members, maintained
- An ESOP scheme with every grant documented and approved
- A data room index, kept current between rounds
Engage us
A first conversation costs nothing and usually takes twenty minutes. Bring your most recent return, or simply the question.
The three practices
Bookkeeping and accounting · GST and TDS compliance · Statements and returns · Audit and projections
An end-to-end finance team · Structuring and restructuring · Cash and working capital · Valuation and fundraising · Internal control audit
03You are here
Startup Advisory
Incorporation and structure · DPIIT and grant assistance · Capital structuring and ESOPs · Legal assistance