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 manager as the subject
A commitment to a fund is a commitment to the people running it, usually for a decade. Manager diligence asks whether the track record is attributable, whether the process is repeatable, and whether the operational and governance foundations hold. Reuben AI structures that assessment so it is evidenced rather than a matter of impression formed in meetings.
This is the evidence-building phase of Reuben AI's living decision record. Research sources, findings, assumptions and unresolved questions stay connected as the record moves into investment committee review and, after a decision, ownership.
Track record that can be attributed
Performance presented at firm level rarely answers the question an allocator is actually asking, which is what this team did and which decisions were theirs. Diligence at manager level separates realised from unrealised, examines what drove the outcomes, and tests whether the people presenting the record were the people responsible for it. Where attribution cannot be established from evidence, that is recorded rather than assumed in either direction.
Team, decision rights and succession
Who sources, who decides, who can veto, and what happens if a named partner leaves. Decision rights on paper and decision rights in practice are frequently different, and the difference matters most in a downside case. Reference and back-channel input is captured with attribution and weighted separately from formal references, because the two are not equivalent evidence.
Process consistency across deals
A manager describing their process is describing an intention. Comparing the described process against how a sample of deals was actually worked is the assessment. Where the firm can show a structured, evidenced record of its own diligence across deals, that answer becomes straightforward, which is one reason managers running an evidenced process fundraise on stronger ground.
Operational diligence
Valuation policy and who applies it, cash controls and authorisation, service providers including administrator, auditor and custodian, conflicts and allocation policy, cyber and data handling, business continuity, and regulatory permissions in each jurisdiction the firm operates in. This is the workstream most often compressed into a questionnaire, and it is the one where an evidenced answer is most valuable.
Governance and the ongoing record
Manager diligence does not end at commitment. Advisory committee arrangements, reporting obligations, side letters and the manager's actual reporting behaviour over time all belong on the same record. A living manager profile means the annual review starts from a maintained assessment rather than being rebuilt from scratch each year.
Diligence at every level, rolling up to the portfolio
Diligence runs at six levels: the asset or company, the deal, the vehicle, the fund, the manager and the portfolio. Findings at each level connect, so a single holding can be read through its deal, vehicle and fund to the manager, and out to the full portfolio it sits inside.
Vehicle level
Diligence with the vehicle as the subject: SPVs, co-investment and continuation vehicles, feeder and parallel structures, terms, governance and jurisdiction.
Vehicle levelFund level
Diligence with the fund as the subject: structure, terms, jurisdiction, portfolio construction and existing holdings assessed through to underlying holdings.
Fund levelAsset or portfolio company
The business, property or loan itself.
What to check
Business quality, cash flows, collateral, management, legal and operational risk.
Typical evidence gaps
Unaudited figures, missing contracts, unverified management claims.
Receives from below
Source documents and evidence directly.
Passes up
Findings, risks and open questions on the underlying business, property or loan. Next: deal.
What 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 Record & monitoring baseline
Profiles that update continuously, where diligence findings become the monitoring baseline for the life of the investment.
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 the same as an operational due diligence review?
Operational diligence is one workstream within manager diligence, covering valuation policy, controls, service providers, conflicts, technology and continuity. Manager diligence also covers track record attribution, team and process.
Can it work from a completed questionnaire?
Yes. A completed questionnaire is treated as self-reported evidence and tiered accordingly, then tested against independent documents where those exist. The distinction between what was asserted and what was verified stays visible.
Is it useful for managers as well as allocators?
Yes. Managers preparing for allocator diligence use the same structure to assemble an evidenced answer to the questions they will be asked, including how their investment process actually runs.
How does it connect to the funds a manager runs?
Manager, fund and holding records are connected, so an assessment of the firm sits alongside the vehicles it runs and the holdings inside them, and exposure can be read across every level up to the full portfolio.