Research and advisory for the decisions that matter most.
98SCA is a research and advisory firm in New Delhi. We advise companies and investors on decisions such as raising capital, entering a market or improving margins.
Services
We help companies prepare for a fundraise and support them through it until the round closes.
Most companies come to us a few months before they plan to raise. They usually have a deck and a model, but the market size is hard to defend, the assumptions have not been tested, or the data room is not ready for diligence.
Once the raise begins, we prepare the team before investor meetings, keep the model and data room up to date, and help answer diligence requests until close.
- Investor presentation
- Written around the questions investors at that stage will ask.
- Financial model
- Projections with every assumption written down and linked to a source.
- Market sizing
- Estimated from the top down and the bottom up, with sources and sensitivities.
- Data room
- Organised in the order a diligence team reads it.
- Diligence preparation
- A list of likely investor questions, with answers and supporting documents.
We give investors an independent view of a company’s market, customers and competitors before they invest.
Investors come to us when they are close to a decision and want the commercial claims in an investment case tested against independent evidence, rather than the company’s own figures.
After the investment, we can track the company’s market and competitors and report against the original investment case at agreed intervals.
- Diligence report
- Market size, customers, competition and key risks, with every figure sourced and dated.
- Market model
- Our own estimate of the addressable market, with assumptions and sensitivities.
- Interviews
- Conversations with customers and people in the industry, where time allows.
- Questions for management
- The points the evidence does not settle, in order of importance.
We work out who to sell to, through which channels, at what price and with what budget, for a launch or a market entry.
In India, customers, channels and prices vary considerably between regions, cities and segments, and a plan built on national averages rarely holds. We establish these facts for the specific market before money is committed, and set the budget in phases so that spending follows results.
After launch, we meet management every month to review results against the plan and recommend changes to channels, pricing or spend.
- Customers
- Which segments to target first, how many customers there are and how they buy today.
- Channels and partners
- Routes to market compared on reach, cost and control, with recommended partners.
- Pricing
- Set against competitors and what customers will pay, with the margin each price leaves.
- Budget
- Spending in phases, with the results needed before each phase is released.
We identify where a business is losing margin and where it can grow, and estimate the value of each opportunity.
Much of the available gain usually sits within current operations: products or customers that do not earn their cost, pricing that has not kept pace with the market, or adjacent markets the company is well placed to enter. We quantify each so that management can decide where to commit resources.
For the initiatives management decides to pursue, we agree owners and targets and report progress against them. We also take on studies of a single question, such as one market or one pricing decision.
- Margin analysis
- Profit by product, customer, channel and region, from the company’s own data.
- Pricing
- Current prices against competitors and against the value customers get.
- New products and markets
- Each one sized and assessed for fit with the business.
- Priorities
- A ranked list of initiatives, each with its value, cost and effort.
We support the chief executive and leadership team on strategy, budgeting, board papers and investor reporting.
Decisions on strategy and capital allocation are best made with a consistent base of research and analysis behind them. We provide that capacity to the chief executive, either as a standing arrangement or for a specific planning cycle, so that the strategy, the budget and what is reported to the board and investors are consistent with one another.
Under a standing arrangement, we meet the chief executive weekly and track the actions agreed at each board meeting.
- Three-year strategy
- Priorities, targets and the investment needed, based on research into the market and the business.
- Annual budget
- Built from the strategy, with the assumptions behind each line.
- Board papers
- Prepared for each meeting, with the decisions needed set out at the start.
- Investor reporting
- Regular updates in a consistent format.
- Research
- Analysis for specific decisions as they come up.
Approach
Problems usually arrive described at the surface. We work down through the data and the structure of the business until we reach what actually moves the result, and we make our recommendation there.
Surface: what everyone sees
- Sales are flat in the second year.
- Growth has slowed despite more sales hires.
- A new region is behind plan.
- The company reports three times growth.
Signal: what the data shows
- Repeat orders fall sharply after the third purchase.
- Most customers who leave do so in their first quarter.
- Stock at distributors in smaller towns turns half as fast.
- Most of the growth comes from two large customers.
Structure: what holds it in place
- Most new customers arrive through discounts that are not repeated.
- Setup depends on the client’s IT team, which takes weeks to assign.
- Distributor margins reward volume in large cities, not new outlets.
- Both customers buy through annual tenders.
Cause: what moves the result
- The product is priced above what most repeat buyers will pay.
- Customers leave before they see value, because onboarding takes six weeks.
- Outside the metros, the channel does not pay for the distributor.
- Revenue depends on two contract renewals, not on a growing market.
The 98SCA Engine
The 98SCA Engine is the research system we built for this work. It splits each question into parts, researches the parts at the same time, and records the source and date of every figure, so that any conclusion can be traced back to its evidence.
About
98SCA is an independent research and advisory firm based in New Delhi. We work with companies at every stage, from early-stage ventures to large groups, in India and internationally, and with the investors who back them.
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