Work that moved
the needle.

The challenge

A Bengaluru-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) with ₹800 crore in assets under management had received adverse findings from the RBI across three consecutive quarterly reviews. Each review identified similar gaps: fragmented controls, inconsistent documentation, delayed reporting and a compliance team that was firefighting rather than working to a structured framework.

The compounding problem was technology. The organisation's compliance workflows were running across three disconnected systems — a legacy loan management platform, a standalone Excel-based reporting tool and an email-based approval process. None of them talked to each other. When a regulator asked for a complete audit trail, the team spent days reconstructing it manually.

The head of compliance had flagged the issue internally for over a year. Without structural change, the organisation was at risk of a show-cause notice and potential operating restrictions.

What we did

The outcome

The organisation's next RBI quarterly review — four months after engagement start — returned zero adverse findings. The inspector specifically noted the quality of the audit trail. The compliance function, which had previously operated reactively, now runs on a structured monthly cadence. Manual compliance effort fell by 40%, freeing the team to focus on emerging obligations rather than retrospective documentation.

"POLI didn't just fix our compliance gaps — they redesigned how our finance team thinks about risk. The RBI review that used to keep us up at night was the smoothest we have ever had."— Director of Finance, Mid-size NBFC, Bengaluru

The challenge

A Pune-based B2B SaaS company with 60 employees and ₹8 crore in annualised recurring revenue was preparing for its Series A fundraise. On paper, the business looked ready: strong growth, improving unit economics, a product with genuine enterprise traction. In practice, the finance function was not.

Revenue recognition was inconsistent — different contracts were being accounted for differently, which meant their stated ARR figure could not be defended in an investor data room. Month-end close took three weeks and involved the founders manually reconciling spreadsheets. There was no board-level financial reporting, no variance analysis and no cash flow forecast beyond 90 days.

Two investor conversations had already stalled because the team could not answer basic diligence questions with confidence. The founders knew they needed help, but had never prioritised finance — and had no clarity on what "investor-ready" actually meant in practice.

What we did

The outcome

The company re-entered investor conversations six weeks after the engagement started. The Series A — ₹42 crore from a Tier 1 Indian VC — closed five months later. The lead investor specifically cited the quality of the financial model and the clarity of the data room as unusual for a company at that stage. Month-end close now runs in five days. The finance function, which previously consumed 15–20% of the co-founder's time, now runs autonomously under a part-time finance manager.

"Within eight weeks we had a financial model our investors could trust and a reporting rhythm our board actually valued. POLI bridged the gap between where we were and where a Series A company needs to be."— Co-founder & CEO, B2B SaaS startup, Pune

The challenge

A fast-growing restaurant group — a contemporary Indian casual dining concept — had expanded from two outlets in Bengaluru to twelve across four cities in eighteen months. Revenue was growing. Margin was not. Gross margin had declined from 68% at the original two outlets to 58% across the expanded portfolio — and the gap was widening with each new city added.

The management team knew something was wrong but could not pinpoint where. The POS system at each outlet was different. Inventory was tracked manually at some locations, not at all at others. Purchasing decisions were being made by individual outlet managers, without visibility into what other sites were paying for the same ingredients. Pricing had been set location by location, without a central logic.

The group's founders had raised ₹15 crore in growth capital and had committed to opening eight more locations in the following year. If the operating model did not improve before that expansion, each new outlet would compound the margin problem further.

What we did

The outcome

Gross margin recovered from 58% to 67% within two quarters of the engagement — a nine-point improvement worth approximately ₹2.1 crore annualised at the current revenue run rate. Food and labour cost variance across the portfolio fell by 22%. All twelve locations are now operating on a single tech-enabled model, with the central team able to identify and address performance outliers within 24 hours rather than waiting for month-end accounts.

The group has since opened four additional locations using the same operating model. Each new outlet reached target margin within six weeks of opening, compared to the previous average of eighteen months.

"They asked better questions than anyone we'd worked with before. The operating model they built is still running two years later — with zero modifications. That's what good work looks like."— Managing Partner, F&B Group, Bengaluru

The challenge

A 45-lawyer Bengaluru firm with a strong reputation in litigation and regulatory advisory had been billing almost exclusively on hourly rates for fifteen years. The model had worked when the firm was smaller. At its current size, it was creating three interconnected problems.

First, revenue predictability was poor. The firm could not forecast annual revenue with any confidence, because it depended on matters being filed, which depended on client decisions outside their control. Budgeting, hiring and investment decisions were all made in a state of structural uncertainty.

Second, client relationships were transactional. Because the firm only engaged with clients when a matter was active, there was no institutional relationship between engagements. Mid-market clients — the firm's target segment — were moving larger mandates to bigger firms that offered broader coverage, even when POLI's client had superior technical expertise.

Third, the hourly model made it structurally impossible to reflect the actual value of senior partner involvement. A one-hour conversation that resolved a complex issue was billed at the same rate as a one-hour document review. Revenue per partner had plateaued for two years as a result.

What we did

The outcome

In the twelve months following the engagement, revenue per equity partner increased by 34% — the largest single-year improvement in the firm's history. Three retainer product lines were live within ten weeks of engagement start. By the end of year one, 60% of total firm revenue was coming from recurring mandates, compared to near-zero at the start of the engagement.

The structural benefit has compounded: the firm now enters each financial year with a visible revenue base, which has made hiring, investment and expansion decisions significantly easier. Two new partners have been admitted in the two years since the engagement, funded directly by the improved revenue visibility.

"POLI helped us see something we could not see from inside. The retainer model felt risky at the time. Within six months it was the most obvious decision we had made in years."— Managing Partner, Litigation & Regulatory Advisory Firm, Bengaluru