A typical merger-and-acquisition process is time-consuming and expensive, even for the largest, well-staffed private equity firms. In addition to spending countless hours meeting with senior executives of potential targets and modeling financial outcomes, these groups spend millions of dollars on external advisers: accountants, lawyers, and management consultants. Since expenses for external advisers are not reimbursed if a deal falls through, PE firms wait until they are certain of their interest before engaging costly specialists such as consultants from McKinsey, BCG, or Bain to perform extensive commercial research on the market and the target company. DiligenceSquared, a startup that was part of YC’s Fall 2025 cohort, says that with the help of AI, it can provide top-tier consultancy-quality commercial research at a fraction of the traditional cost. The startup’s co-founders, Frederik Hansen and Søren Biltoft, possess deep expertise in private equity due diligence. Hansen was formerly a principal at Blackstone, where he commissioned these reports for multiple billion-dollar buyouts. Meanwhile, Biltoft spent seven years in BCG’s private equity practice leading these types of diligence efforts.   …