Company and asset level
Diligence with the company or asset as the subject: documents, financials, cap table, contracts and market position, each finding bound to its source.
Company and asset levelDiligence with the fund as the subject
When the investment is a fund rather than a company, the questions change. Structure and jurisdiction matter, terms matter, and the portfolio inside the fund matters more than any single line in it. Reuben AI treats the fund as the subject of diligence and assesses its holdings on look-through, so a commitment is underwritten against what the fund actually owns.
Structure, vehicle and jurisdiction
A fund is a legal construction before it is a portfolio. The vehicle type, the jurisdiction it is formed in, the feeder and parallel arrangements, the treatment of carried interest and the governance rights attached to the interest all shape what a commitment actually is. Diligence at this level assesses the structure as presented against how it behaves, including where the vehicle differs from the market standard for its jurisdiction.
Terms read as a system, not a list
Management fee, carry, hurdle, catch-up, recycling, key-person provisions and the removal mechanics are frequently reviewed one at a time. They interact. A term that is unremarkable alone can be material next to another, and the combination is what determines outcomes for the investor. Terms are captured as structured data on the fund record so they can be compared across managers rather than recalled from a document.
Portfolio construction and concentration
Stated strategy and realised construction diverge often. Diligence at fund level compares the two: how capital was actually deployed by stage, sector, geography and vintage, how concentrated the portfolio is, how much of the value sits in a small number of positions, and how much of the reported performance depends on unrealised marks rather than exits.
Look-through to the holdings
The most important part of fund diligence is not the fund document. It is the portfolio underneath it. Because company level diligence and fund level diligence share the same record structure, existing holdings can be assessed on look-through rather than accepted at the summary level the manager reports. That is what makes concentration across funds visible, including the same underlying company appearing through several vehicles.
From commitment to monitoring
A commitment made on this basis carries its own baseline into monitoring. Capital calls, distributions, valuations and holdings updates arrive against a fund record that already holds what was underwritten, so a change in the portfolio is read as variance rather than as new information with no reference point.
Diligence at three levels
The same engine runs at three altitudes. A company or asset can be the subject, a fund can be the subject, or a manager can be the subject. Findings at the lower level roll up, so a position in a fund can be read through to the underlying holdings and back out to the portfolio it sits inside.
Manager level
Diligence with the manager as the subject: track record, team, process consistency, operational controls and governance, evidenced rather than asserted.
Manager levelWhat makes the diligence deep
Diligence is only as good as the context behind the questions it asks. Credit diligence and venture diligence do not ask the same things, a fund in one jurisdiction is not assessed like a fund in another, and a company profile that stops updating at signing stops being useful. Asset class coverage, jurisdiction and vehicle structures, market research and continuously updating company and manager profiles all feed the same diligence record.
Asset class coverage
Native asset classes and sub-asset overlays, so evidence requirements differ by what is being assessed.
Jurisdictions and vehicles
Structures assessed against the conventions of the jurisdiction they are formed in.
Market research
Market structure and comparables attached to the deal rather than held in a separate document.
Living profiles and portfolio view
Company, fund and manager profiles that keep updating, and diligence findings that become the monitoring baseline.
Go deeper on diligence
Each page below covers one part of the diligence layer in detail. Start with the one closest to the decision you are making.
AI due diligence
How extraction, tiering and screening work across the document set.
Deep due diligence
Workstream templates, evidence binding and reference tracking in depth.
Due diligence platform
The platform view: what runs where, and on which investment record.
Due diligence automation
Which parts of diligence are automated, and which stay with people.
PE due diligence software
QofE summaries, debt structure and operational diligence for buyouts.
Best AI due diligence software
A direct comparison against generic assistants and traditional data rooms.
Questions we are asked in diligence demos
Is this for allocators, funds of funds or both?
Both, along with family offices, multi-family offices and any investor committing to third-party funds. The subject of diligence is the fund, regardless of who is assessing it.
What does look-through actually mean here?
The holdings inside a fund are assessed as their own records rather than as summary lines, so exposure can be read from a single underlying company up through the fund to the total portfolio, and the same company appearing through more than one vehicle is visible.
Does jurisdiction change the assessment?
Yes. Vehicle types and their governance and reporting expectations differ by jurisdiction, so the structure is assessed against the conventions of the jurisdiction it is formed in rather than a single global template.
How does this relate to manager level diligence?
Fund level diligence assesses the vehicle and its portfolio. Manager level diligence assesses the firm running it. Most commitments require both, and they sit on the same record so the assessments inform each other.