The $500K Consulting Report Just Got 90% Cheaper, Thanks to AI

$500,000 Just Became $50,000

For decades, McKinsey, BCG, and Bain have owned the M&A due diligence market. Private equity firms routinely paid them $500,000 to $1 million for comprehensive reports analyzing potential acquisition targets. Now a startup called DiligenceSquared claims it can deliver the same quality analysis for just $50,000 — using AI.

The founders aren't outsiders taking wild swings at an established industry. Frederik Hansen was a principal at Blackstone, where he personally commissioned these expensive reports for billion-dollar buyouts. Søren Biltoft spent seven years at BCG leading exactly these types of diligence efforts. Since launching in October, they've already completed multiple projects for some of the world's largest PE firms.

That early traction convinced Damir Becirovic, former Index Ventures partner, to lead their $5 million seed round through his new VC firm, Relentless.

How AI Interviews Replace Human Consultants

Traditional M&A due diligence is expensive by design. Consultants conduct dozens of interviews with C-suite executives at the target company's customers, then synthesize those insights with proprietary market data into 200-page reports. Since these costs aren't reimbursed if deals fall through, PE firms wait until they're highly confident before engaging top-tier consultancies.

DiligenceSquared flips this model. Instead of human consultants, AI voice agents conduct customer interviews. Senior human consultants then verify the accuracy and commercial insights of the final output. "Since AI is doing a lot of the groundwork, we can provide the analysis for just $50,000," Hansen explains.

The price difference is changing behavior. PE firms now engage DiligenceSquared much earlier in the process, well before they have high conviction in a deal. The lower barrier to entry means more deals get analyzed, potentially leading to better investment decisions.

The Competition Heats Up

DiligenceSquared isn't alone in trying to disrupt this market. Main competitor Bridgetown Research raised a $19 million Series A co-led by Accel and Lightspeed in February. The broader AI-powered research space is also attracting massive investment — Listen Labs raised $69 million at a $500 million valuation in January.

But Hansen and Biltoft argue their due diligence process is fundamentally different from consumer research startups like Keplar, Outset, and Listen Labs. "We're applying AI interviews to a very specific, high-stakes business context that requires different expertise and validation processes," Hansen notes.

The startup's team includes Harshil Rastogi, a former Google engineer, adding technical depth to complement the founders' PE and consulting backgrounds.