Treelife Resources

Indian founders spend a lot of time on product, fundraising, and hiring. They rarely spend enough time on structure, until a CA or a well-meaning investor tells them they are “leaving money on the table” by not having a holding company, or that an LLP would have saved them crores…

An ESOP scheme in an Indian startup is not just a retention document. It is a tax structure. Every design decision a founder makes at grant time, from exercise price to vesting cliff to when employees are told to exercise, has a direct consequence on what the employee pays to…

When a foreign investor wires money into your Indian company and shares are allotted, a 30-day clock starts. Form FC-GPR (Foreign Currency Gross Provisional Return) is the mandatory filing that reports that transaction to the Reserve Bank of India through the RBI’s FIRMS portal, and missing that window triggers penalties…

When a venture capital fund opens your data room, the first thing their legal team reaches for is not the pitch deck. It is the corporate record. Every founding story, every cap table narrative, and every promise made across a term sheet negotiation gets stress-tested against one question: does the…

When a founder receives a Form STK-1 from the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the first instinct is to assume the company is already dead. It is not. The notice is a proposal, not a final order. Between STK-1 and actual dissolution, the law gives you meaningful windows to respond, file…

A foreign parent company can close its Indian subsidiary through two routes: strike off under Section 248 of the Companies Act 2013 for defunct companies with no assets or liabilities, or voluntary liquidation under Section 59 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016 for solvent companies that need a…

Copyright is simultaneously the most pervasive and most mismanaged intellectual property right in the Indian startup ecosystem. Every line of code a developer writes, every screen a designer produces, every course module a content team authors, all of it attracts copyright the moment it is fixed in a tangible form….

India’s startup ecosystem has witnessed the emergence of various funding tools designed to address the challenges of early-stage fundraising. Among these, the India Simple Agreement for Future Equity (“iSAFE”) notes have gained traction as an innovative funding mechanism tailored specifically for the Indian market. iSAFE notes are agreements to purchase…

The co-founder agreement is the easy part. The hard part is making sure the AOA, the shareholders’ agreement, and the cap table can actually deliver the outcome the agreement promises, particularly when a co-founder leaves. A co-founder equity structure India founders often inherit from templates or peer advice tends to…

When a co-founder dispute surfaces in an Indian startup, the outcome is rarely decided in a boardroom or a court. It is decided by whatever was written into the shareholders’ agreement six months or two years before the relationship broke down. Founders who go into a dispute with a well-drafted…

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…

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has officially unveiled revised certification requirements for key investment personnel of Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) managers. This crucial update, detailed in SEBI circular F. No. SEBI/LAD-NRO/GN/2025/249 dated June 25, 2025, aims to enhance professional standards and ensure a higher level of expertise…