Mumbai, Jan 09: Lakhani Financial Services (LFS), is a boutique investment banking and fundraising advisory, today announced its business roadmap for 2026, with its structured 120-day fundraising programme positioned as the firm’s primary growth and execution engine for the coming year.
The roadmap is shaped by the firm’s assessment of current private market conditions, where fundraising timelines have lengthened, capital deployment has slowed, and investors are applying significantly higher scrutiny to financials, execution capability, and capital efficiency. Against this backdrop, LFS said it intends to focus on structured, time-bound mandates rather than open-ended fundraising engagements.
The 120-day fundraising programme is designed as a fixed-duration mandate covering the full capital-raising lifecycle. The programme typically supports companies raising between ₹2 crore and ₹20 crore, spanning seed, pre-Series A, and early Series A stages. Since introducing the programme, over 100 startups and growth-stage companies have approached LFS to evaluate participation, indicating strong founder demand for a more disciplined fundraising framework.
Under the programme, fundraising is broken into four defined phases across 120 days. The initial phase focuses on financial readiness, including a detailed review of historical financials, cash-flow patterns, burn rate, runway, and capital deployment plans. The objective at this stage is to ensure that the quantum of capital sought is directly linked to clearly articulated business milestones rather than broad growth assumptions.
The second phase centres on valuation logic and investor positioning. This includes refining financial projections, aligning key metrics with stage-appropriate benchmarks, and preparing investor materials such as pitch decks and data rooms. The third phase involves curated investor outreach, where conversations are limited to investors whose cheque size, sector exposure, and stage focus align with the company’s requirements. The final phase is focused on managing term-sheet discussions, commercial negotiations, and fund closure.
The problem with fundraising today is not access, but structure,” said Mr. Devansh Lakhani, Director and Startup Fundraising Expert at Lakhani Financial Services. “Most founders enter the market without clarity on how much capital they actually need, what it will unlock, or how it changes the economics of the business. The 120-day programme is designed to impose that discipline before serious capital conversations begin.”
A core component of the programme is LFS’s internal screening framework, referred to as the Three Ts, which determines whether a company is ready to raise capital. The framework evaluates Talent, assessing the founding team’s execution capability and decision-making maturity; Traction, analysed through revenue visibility, customer behaviour, unit economics, and operating leverage; and Technology, measured by how effectively it supports scalability, defensibility, or cost efficiency. Companies that do not meet these criteria are advised to defer fundraising and focus on strengthening fundamentals.
“Raising capital without meeting these thresholds often leads to misaligned expectations and poor long-term outcomes,” Mr. Lakhani said. “In several cases, the correct decision is to delay fundraising and fix execution gaps rather than pursue capital prematurely.”
While the firm continues to remain sector-agnostic, LFS said its strategic focus over the next two to three years will be concentrated on four sectors where it sees consistent investor appetite and scalable business models. These include direct-to-consumer brands with improving contribution margins, consumer technology platforms addressing large and repeat-use markets, sports-linked businesses spanning fitness, infrastructure, and fan engagement, and deep tech and artificial intelligence companies with proprietary technology and long-term application potential. The firm said this focus allows for more precise benchmarking, sharper investor targeting, and better fundraising outcomes.
In addition to fundraising, LFS announced plans to launch a cross-border collaboration initiative in 2026. Under this initiative, the firm will support Indian startups and growth-stage companies seeking partnerships and expansion opportunities with foreign startups and businesses, initially focusing on the UAE and the United States. LFS will act as an intermediary across the process, including partner identification, strategic positioning, commercial structuring, and coordination with legal and financial stakeholders.
“As Indian companies look outward for growth, there is a growing need for structured support that goes beyond introductions,” Mr. Lakhani said. “Our aim is to help companies navigate cross-border partnerships with the same discipline we apply to fundraising.”
