DiligenceSquared uses AI, voice agents to make M&A research affordable
#DiligenceSquared #AI due diligence #M&A research #private equity #Blackstone #BCG #AI voice agents #Relentless VC
📌 Key Takeaways
- DiligenceSquare uses AI voice agents to provide affordable M&A research
- Former Blackstone principal and BCG consultant founded the startup
- The company charges $50,000 vs traditional $500,000-$1 million for similar research
- DiligenceSquare raised $5 million seed funding from Relentless VC
📖 Full Retelling
Frederik Hansen and Søren Biltoft, former Blackstone principal and BCG consultant respectively, launched DiligenceSquared in Boston during October 2025 to address the prohibitively expensive and time-consuming nature of traditional M&A due diligence, which typically costs private equity firms $500,000 to $1 million for consultancy-quality research. DiligenceSquared leverages AI voice agents to conduct customer interviews for potential acquisition targets, a process that typically requires expensive management consultants to interview dozens of corporate customers including C-suite executives. The startup, which also includes former Google engineer Harshil Rastogi as a co-founder, differentiates itself from consumer research startups by providing specialized due diligence analysis that synthesizes customer insights with proprietary market data. To ensure quality, the company involves senior human consultants who verify the accuracy and commercial insights of the final output, allowing them to deliver comprehensive 200-page reports at just $50,000 - a fraction of the traditional cost. The startup's innovative approach has attracted significant attention in the private equity industry, with several of the world's largest PE firms and mid-market funds already utilizing their services since launching in late 2025. This early traction convinced Damir Becirovic, former Index Ventures partner, to lead DiligenceSquared's $5 million seed round through his new VC firm, Relentless. Their entry into the market comes amid broader disruption of the diligence space, with competitor Bridgetown Research raising $19 million Series A funding in February 2026. By dramatically reducing the cost barrier, DiligenceSquared has enabled PE firms to engage in high-quality commercial research earlier in the acquisition process, rather than waiting until they have strong conviction about a potential deal.
🏷️ Themes
AI in finance, M&A technology, Startup funding
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Original Source
A typical merger-and-acquisition process is time consuming and expensive, even for the largest, well-staffed private equity firms. In addition to spending countless hours meeting with senior executives of potential targets and modeling financial outcomes, these groups spend millions of dollars on external advisers: accountants, lawyers, and management consultants. Since expenses for external advisers are not reimbursed if a deal falls through, PE firms wait until they are certain of their interest before engaging costly specialists such as consultants from McKinsey, BCG, or Bain to perform extensive commercial research on the market and the target company. DiligenceSquared, a startup that was part of YC’s fall 2025 cohort, says that with the help of AI, it can provide top-tier consultancy-quality commercial research at a fraction of the traditional cost. The startup’s co-founders, Frederik Hansen and Søren Biltoft, possess deep expertise in private equity due diligence. Hansen was formerly a principal at Blackstone, where he commissioned these reports for multiple billion-dollar buyouts. Meanwhile, Biltoft spent seven years in BCG’s private equity practice leading these types of diligence efforts. Since launching in October, Hansen’s and Biltoft’s industry experience has helped DiligenceSquared complete multiple projects for several of the world’s largest PE firms and mid-market funds, Hansen tells TechCrunch. That early traction convinced Damir Becirovic, a former Index Ventures partner, to lead DiligenceSquared’s $5 million seed round out of his new VC firm, Relentless . Instead of relying on expensive management consultants, the startup uses AI voice agents to conduct interviews with customers of the companies the PE firms are considering buying. Techcrunch event Disrupt 2026: The tech ecosystem, all in one room Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders ...
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