The cross-border due diligence questions most founders cannot answer
A founder pitched me earlier this year on his semiconductor company. The deck was clean. The market was real. The technology was genuinely differentiated. The Singapore entity was properly incorporated, the cap table looked orderly, and the revenue was growing. Then I asked him three questions. Where does your intellectual property legally sit? Who owns […] The post The cross-border due diligence…
Cross-border due diligence is a crucial aspect of raising funds for companies operating in multiple jurisdictions. Many founders fail to prepare adequately for this type of funding, leading to failed fundraising attempts. The key to success lies in answering three critical questions without hesitation: where does the intellectual property legally sit, who owns the entity that owns it, and what exactly is being bought if money is wired into the Singapore company?
These questions are not product-focused but structure-focused, and the investors are underwriting the structure rather than the business. Investors want to know precisely what they are buying and be able to defend their ownership if scrutiny comes. If a founder cannot answer these questions confidently, the company is not ready to raise cross-border funds.
This issue has become more prominent in Southeast Asia, with accounting fraud and regulatory changes putting cross-border structures under increased scrutiny. Founders who invest time in understanding their structure and preparing the right story are the ones who successfully close cross-border rounds.
Written by urgent.news from e27's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
