Kautilya · Mumbai

Deal Research Intern

WHO WE ARE

Kautilya is a buy-side M&A advisory firm. Pocket Fund is a micro private equity firm. Together, we buy, advise on, and operate off-market, lower middle-market deals across US, UK, ANZ and India.

Our work lives in the gap between great companies and the capital that wants to buy them. We find deals others miss, close them, and then run what we buy.

WhoBoughtWho (WBW) is our deal-intelligence arm. We track who's buying and selling in the lower middle market ($10M to $100M range) and turn that into a weekly newsletter and a searchable deal database. We chase disclosures other trackers miss: SEC filings, RoC filings, press releases, broker listings, LinkedIn chatter, deal blog scraps. And we verify every one before it counts.

THE ROLE

You'll be a full-stack deal tracker for WBW. Not a lister. A hunter.

Source recent deals. Hunt for lower middle-market M&A across primary filings, press releases, broker sites, PE and strategic acquirer announcements, LinkedIn, and niche deal forums.

Verify before you log it. Every deal needs a primary source. No secondhand claims. No unconfirmed rumours. You'll learn to tell a real disclosure from noise fast.

Build intelligence dossiers. Research the buyer, the target, the deal terms where disclosed, and the story behind the transaction.

Maintain the database. Help keep WBW's database clean, current, and correctly categorised.

This is not a role where you make lists all day. You'll own a slice of deal-finding end to end, from spotting a disclosure to writing it up correctly. You'll learn how lower middle-market M&A actually gets sourced, disclosed, and tracked, from the inside.

ARE YOU THE PERSON FOR THIS?

Ask yourself:

Do you get energised by digging? (You're the person who's gone down 3am rabbit holes on random topics just because you were curious.)
Can you tell a real disclosure from a rumour, or are you willing to learn the difference fast? (Judgment, not credentials.)
Are you honest enough to say "I couldn't verify this" out loud? (Faking a source is a permanent reject.)
Do you write cleanly and organise your work without being asked? (Our newsletter and database run on your write-ups.)
Are you genuinely curious about M&A, investing, and how deals get done? (You'll be inside them.)

You don't need finance experience. We can teach deal structure. We can't teach hustle or instinct for finding a needle in a haystack.

WHAT YOU'LL GAIN

Skills that compound. Deal sourcing, primary-source verification, financial disclosure reading. Skills that work whether you stay in finance or not.

Real responsibility early. Your research goes into a live newsletter and a live database, not a drawer.

Exposure to M&A. You'll see how dozens of lower middle-market deals actually get done and disclosed.

Direct access. To the WBW team and Kautilya's broader deal-sourcing network.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM US

Real impact. Small team, no hiding. Your work is visible from week one.

High expectations. Excellence, not perfection. Sloppy sourcing isn't fine. An honest "I couldn't confirm this" is.

Direct feedback. Real-time, specific, no annual-review surprises.

Results-oriented. We care whether the deal checks out, not the hours logged.

1. Your details2. Questions & assignment

Your details

Full name *

Email *

Phone *

Age *

LinkedIn profile URL *

Resume *PDF or DOC, up to 25 MB.

Where did you hear about this role? *

A few more questions

Q1. Why WBW? Not "why finance" or "why M&A." Why this specific slice: tracking who bought whom, verifying disclosures, keeping a database honest. If you can't tell us in 4 sentences, this probably isn't the role. *

Q2. The rabbit hole. Tell us about the last thing you researched purely because you were curious. Not for a class. Not for a project. Just because. What did you learn, and how deep did you go? *

Q3. The wrong deal. You're 30 minutes from filing three dossiers. On your third one, you realise the "source" you used was a press release from a marketing firm quoting a rumour, not a primary disclosure. What do you do? (One paragraph, honest.) *

DEAL RESEARCH & VERIFICATION EXERCISE

Read the full brief

This tests your ability to find and verify real, recent lower middle-market M&A transactions. Unlike desk research, this requires active sourcing and primary-source proof of work.

Target: The 3 most recent lower middle-market deals you can find, verified and documented. As close to today as possible.

The Scenario

WhoBoughtWho tracks completed or announced M&A transactions in the $10M to $100M range. Your task: find 3 that meet all of these:

Disclosed transaction value (or a credibly estimable one) between $10M and $100M
Publicly disclosed or reportable (filing, press release, credible trade press, broker announcement). No rumours.
Sector agnostic
Buyer and target both identifiable

Part 1: Discovery & Verification

For each of your 3 deals, provide:

A. Source Documentation. Proof you found and verified it.

Link and screenshot of the primary source disclosing the deal
Exact date the deal was announced or closed
If the source isn't primary (e.g. trade press), a second corroborating source

B. Deal Dossier. One page per deal, covering:

Deal Snapshot. Buyer, target, deal value (or estimation method if undisclosed), close or announcement date, sector.
Deal Story. Why this deal happened. 3 to 4 sentences. Strategic rationale, distress sale, roll-up, geographic play. Whatever's inferable.
Source Reliability. Primary or secondary? What would you need to fully confirm it?

Part 2: Process Reflection

Half a page, covering:

What was your single most effective way of finding recent deals?
What didn't work?
If you had 2 more hours to find 5 more deals, what would you do differently?

Include the word "momentum" somewhere naturally in this note. This is how we confirm you read the brief.

Deliverables (due in 3 days from receiving the assignment)

Three deal dossiers (PDF, max 1 page each)
Source documentation for each deal (links and screenshots)
Process note (PDF, half page max)

What We're Looking For

Execution. Can you actually find 3 real, recent, verifiable deals?
Rigor. Did you verify against a primary source, not just repeat a headline?
Judgment. Can you tell a real disclosure from noise or a rumour?
Recency. How close to today are your deals?

Success Tips

Start immediately. Recent deals are time-sensitive by definition.
Primary sources (filings, official press releases) beat aggregator roundups.
Quality over quantity. Three well-verified deals beat ten sloppy ones.

Deal #01 (Deal Dossier, Source Documentation & Process Notes) *

Deal #02 (Deal Dossier, Source Documentation & Process Notes) *

Deal #03 (Deal Dossier, Source Documentation & Process Notes) *

By submitting you agree we store your details to consider you for this and future roles.