The Technical Due Diligence Checklist for Indian Startups Raising Seed & Series A Rounds
The complete technical due diligence checklist for Indian startup founders raising Seed, Pre-Series A, or Series A funding. How to prepare your codebase, architecture, IP, and security.
You pitched 25 venture capital funds in Bengaluru and Mumbai. You received a signed Term Sheet. You celebrate.
Then, the VC firm introduces their external technical auditor:
“We need access to your GitHub repositories, AWS console, architectural diagrams, IP assignment agreements, and penetration testing reports before wiring funds.”
For 30% of early-stage startups, technical due diligence is where deals get delayed, renegotiated, or killed entirely.
VC technical auditors look for hidden technical debt, security vulnerabilities, missing IP assignments from offshore contractors, and unscalable cloud architecture.
Here is the exact technical due diligence checklist to audit and prepare your startup before investor audits begin.
1. The 5 Core Pillars of VC Technical Due Diligence
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Intellectual Property (IP) & Legal Ownership │
│ Are all contractor IP agreements signed & clean? │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 2. Code Quality, Architecture & Technical Debt │
│ Is the code maintainable, documented, and testable? │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 3. Security, Data Privacy & Regulatory Compliance │
│ Are customer records, passwords & API keys secure? │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 4. Cloud Infrastructure, Hosting & Unit Costs │
│ What are your monthly cloud unit economics at scale?│
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 5. Engineering Team Structure & Velocity │
│ Can the team ship features without the founder? │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘2. The Comprehensive Technical Audit Checklist
Pillar 1: Intellectual Property & Code Ownership
- Contractor IP Assignment Agreements: 100% of past and present developers, freelancers, and agency partners have signed legal IP assignment agreements assigning all code rights to your Indian Pvt. Ltd. company.
- Open Source License Compliance: No viral copyleft licenses (GPLv3 / AGPL) accidentally bundled into proprietary commercial code that could legally force you to open-source your product.
Pillar 2: Code Quality & Architecture
- Architecture Decision Records (ADRs): Clean diagrams documenting system components, database schemas, and external API dependencies.
- Automated CI/CD Pipelines: Automated linting, build verification, and automated tests running on every pull request via GitHub Actions.
- Database Indexing & Query Health: No unindexed relational queries that cause CPU spikes when database tables exceed 100,000 records.
Pillar 3: Security & Data Protection
- Zero Hardcoded Secrets: No API keys, AWS secret keys, or database credentials committed into GitHub repository history.
- Environment Isolation: Strict separation between Development, Staging, and Production cloud environments with role-based access.
- Authentication & Encryption: Passwords hashed using bcrypt/argon2; all data encrypted at rest and in transit via TLS 1.3.
Pillar 4: Cloud Unit Economics & Scalability
- Cost Per Active User Benchmark: Transparent documentation of server and API costs per 1,000 active monthly transactions.
- Disaster Recovery & Backups: Automated daily database snapshots with a documented 2-hour Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
3. How to Pass Technical Due Diligence with Flying Colors
When auditors ask questions, do not send 50 unorganized links.
Prepare a single “Investor Technical Data Room” folder containing:
Architecture_Overview.pdf(Clean visual diagram)Security_and_Compliance_Policy.mdIP_Assignment_Summary.pdfCloud_Cost_Projections_at_10x_Scale.xlsx
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if an auditor finds bugs or messy code?
Auditors expect early-stage code to have some technical debt. What alarms investors is evasiveness or ignorance. If you proactively identify your technical debt with a clear remediation roadmap, investors view it as a sign of mature leadership.
Raising a Round Soon? Get a Pre-Due-Diligence Tech Audit
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👉 Book a Free 30-Minute Technical Due Diligence Assessment or Chat with our tech lead on WhatsApp.