A due diligence checklist for whoever is raising
A fundraising due diligence checklist lists every document investors will ask for before committing. Build the room against it before you launch: corporate and capital records, financials, commercial and legal files for a company, or team, track record, terms and operations for a fund. Gaps found before launch are cheap; gaps found by an investor slow the raise.
Folder index
- 01 Overview Deck, summary, contacts and the checklist itself with status.
- 02 Corporate or fund formation Charter, bylaws or LPA, minutes, good standing, GP entities.
- 03 Capitalization or terms Cap table and financing documents, or fund terms and side letter policy.
- 04 Financials Statements, audits, model or budget, tax returns.
- 05 Commercial or track record Customers and contracts, or deal-level performance and attribution.
- 06 IP or deal files IP schedule and assignments, or memos for prior investments.
- 07 People Team, key agreements, compensation, departures.
How this raise works
Investors in a company round check four things: that the company exists and is governed properly, that the cap table is right, that the numbers are real and that it owns what it sells. LPs in a fund check the team, the track record and its attribution, the terms, and whether operations and compliance can support more capital.
Checklists differ by raise type, but the core repeats. Corporate documents, cap table or fund terms, financial statements, material contracts, IP or deal files, people and legal matters appear on nearly every list. Sector-specific items come on top: clinical data for biotech, licenses for fintech, rent rolls for real estate.
The best time to run the checklist is before the first meeting. Every missing assignment, unsigned consent or unreconciled number is easier to fix with no investor waiting. Raising teams that start this early often go from term sheet to close noticeably faster.
Best data rooms for this raise
The 16 rooms re-ranked with this raise's weights. Raise workflow carries the most weight here.
- Investor tracking 21%
- Permission control 18%
- Raise workflow 25%
- Investor onboarding 19%
- Cost of a raise 18%
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Full deal room with AI, a listed price and a 14-day free trial.
Price $149 a month Trial 14-day free trial Features 8 of 12 listed -
Long-running M&A platform with layered permissions and fast support.
Price Priced on request Trial Free trial available Features 9 of 12 listed -
Deal room with AI and readiness tools for preparing a process.
Price Priced on request Trial Free trial available Features 8 of 12 listed -
Bank-grade platform for large processes, with AI and a mobile app.
Price Priced on request Trial Demo on request Features 10 of 12 listed -
Simple flat-rate deal room with signing and Q&A.
Price $250 a month Trial Free trial available Features 8 of 12 listed -
Deal room with a listed monthly price and an open API.
Price $299 a month Trial Free trial available Features 7 of 12 listed -
Easy, reliable deal room favored by mid-market advisers.
Price Priced on request Trial Free trial available Features 7 of 12 listed -
Content cloud with watermarks and signing, priced per user.
Price $15 a user a month Trial Free trial available Features 9 of 12 listed -
One of the oldest deal rooms, common on bank-led transactions.
Price Priced on request Trial Demo on request Features 8 of 12 listed -
European deal room strong in real estate, with AI features.
Price Priced on request Trial Demo on request Features 8 of 12 listed
Places 11 to 16: DealRoom (7.0), SmartRoom (6.9), ShareVault (6.7), Venue by DFIN (6.2), Digify (6.2), DocSend (6.0)
Folder index for the room
A starting index for this raise. Number the folders so the order survives exports and investors can cite them in questions.
- 01 OverviewDeck, summary, contacts and the checklist itself with status.
- 02 Corporate or fund formationCharter, bylaws or LPA, minutes, good standing, GP entities.
- 03 Capitalization or termsCap table and financing documents, or fund terms and side letter policy.
- 04 FinancialsStatements, audits, model or budget, tax returns.
- 05 Commercial or track recordCustomers and contracts, or deal-level performance and attribution.
- 06 IP or deal filesIP schedule and assignments, or memos for prior investments.
- 07 PeopleTeam, key agreements, compensation, departures.
- 08 Legal and regulatoryLitigation, licenses, Form ADV for advisers, privacy.
- 09 Operations and securitySystems, cyber policy, service providers, insurance.
- 10 Sector itemsClinical, regulatory, property or license files for the specific sector.
- 11 Q&AInvestor questions and answers.
Features this raise needs
| Feature | Why | Ellty | iDeals | Ansarada | Datasite | SecureDocs | CapLinked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drag-and-drop folders | An entire numbered folder tree goes up in a single drop, structure intact. | ||||||
| Q&A module | LPs and lead investors post questions on a file; the deal team routes each one, drafts a reply and decides who sees it. | ||||||
| Investor activity log | A per-investor record of opens, pages and minutes, which tells the IR team who is in diligence and who stalled. | ||||||
| AI features | Help the vendor lists, for example summaries, search across documents, automatic filing or draft answers. |
Setting up the room
- 01
Pick the right checklist
Start from a company round, fund raise, real estate or debt list, then add sector items.
- 02
Score each item
Mark every line as ready, needs work or not applicable, and give each gap an owner and a date.
- 03
Fix the expensive gaps first
Cap table errors, missing IP assignments and unreconciled track records take the longest to repair.
- 04
Upload in checklist order
Mirror the checklist numbering in folder names so investors can tick items off as they read.
- 05
Keep the status live
Update the checklist as investors ask for more, so the next investor sees a complete room.
Common mistakes
- Launching the raise before running the checklist at all.
- Folder names that do not match investor checklist numbering.
- Leaving sector-specific items out until a specialist investor asks.
- Uploading drafts and finals side by side with no labels.
Calculators for this raise
Or take the four-question quiz and check the raise checklist.
Questions and answers
What documents are needed for fundraising due diligence?
For a company: corporate records, cap table, financials, material contracts, IP, people and legal files. For a fund: team, track record, terms, operations, compliance and prior fund financials.
When should I prepare the due diligence room?
Before your first investor meeting. Investors who like the pitch ask for it within days.
How big should a fundraising data room be?
Large enough to answer the checklist, small enough to read. A focused early-stage room may hold under a hundred files; a fund raise often holds several hundred.