Treelife Resources

Most bootstrapped founders either underspend on advisory in year one and spend year two fixing the mess, or get quoted a number they cannot justify and sign up for a retainer that does not fit their stage. Neither outcome is inevitable. The compliance and advisory cost for a pre-revenue or…

A Category III AIF long only equity fund sits in a regulatory space that most wealth managers gloss over in their pitches. The fund is registered under the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012 as a Category III vehicle, which means it is permitted to use leverage and derivatives. But…

Incorporating a company in India takes two to five working days. The documents that come out of that process, however, shape every funding round, every government grant, and every investor negotiation you will have for the next decade. AI and deep-tech founders face a sharper version of this problem than…

India crossed 50% non-fossil fuel installed power capacity in July 2025, five years ahead of its Paris Agreement commitment. The government’s 500 GW target by 2030 needs roughly Rs 33 lakh crore in total investment, of which approximately one-third is expected from private capital. That is not a mutual fund…

Founders building funded-trader platforms in India keep hearing the same advice from investors and counsel: register as an Alternative Investment Fund and the regulatory problem disappears. It rarely does. An AIF is a specific legal wrapper built for pooling investor capital under a defined investment policy, not a general licence…

A business transfer agreement (BTA) is not a formality you fill in after the deal is commercially agreed. Every clause choice in the BTA has a downstream consequence: on your income tax computation under Section 50B of the Income Tax Act 1961, on whether the GST going-concern exemption survives a…

When a business is on the table, the structure you choose is not a formality. It sets the tax bill, the GST position, the stamp duty exposure, and, critically, who wakes up three years later with a tax department notice about a deal that closed clean. The choice between a…

Escrow is one of those SPA terms that founders agree to without fully understanding what they have committed to. A neutral third party holds a portion of the deal consideration, releases it on specified triggers, and sits between the two parties as a performance bond. That is the concept. The…

Earnouts have become the most common way to close the valuation gap in Indian M&A, and also the most commonly misunderstood clause in the SPA. A buyer who sees a strong business but cannot underwrite the seller’s projected trajectory and a seller who refuses to accept the trailing-twelve-month number as…

Every share purchase agreement or share subscription agreement in India contains a set of warranties: statements from the seller or founder about the state of the business that the buyer or investor is relying on to close. The disclosure letter is the document that qualifies those warranties by telling the…

SEBI issued its updated Master Circular for Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) on 03 June 2026, consolidating every circular, clarification, and regulatory change issued under the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012 up to 31 May 2026. The document runs 153 pages across 25 chapters and supersedes the previous Master Circular…

The Reserve Bank of India held its benchmark repo rate steady at 5.25% at the June 2026 Monetary Policy Committee meeting, unanimously, under Governor Sanjay Malhotra. This is the third meeting in a row that the rate has stayed put, following a run of 150 basis point cuts between February…

India’s Cabinet approved an amendment to Press Note 3 (PN3) of 2020 in March 2026, and it is generating significant attention across the investment and startup community. Headlines have rushed to label it a sweeping FDI liberalisation. The reality is considerably more targeted. This report breaks down exactly what changed,…

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently announced a major overhaul to the regulatory framework for Angel Funds under the Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) Regulations, 2012. This new framework, introduced in 2025, aims to enhance transparency, improve operational clarity, and encourage investor participation. In this article, we’ll explore…

In a significant move to invigorate India’s startup ecosystem, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), during its board meeting on June 19, 2025, approved substantial changes to the Angel Fund Framework. These revisions are designed to unlock more capital for early-stage companies while simultaneously ensuring enhanced investor suitability…