Key Takeaways
- • Baird Capital invested $53 million in AI automation platform EvoluteIQ in a minority growth capital round in September 2025, according to EvoluteIQ CFO Pallav Sharma.
- • EvoluteIQ's CFO attributes the deal to reliable reporting, a forecast the board trusts, and a business ready for scrutiny at any time.
- • Ocorian's Vincent Calcagno says private equity due diligence demands on CFOs have reached an all-time high, particularly around data analytics and AI usage.
- • Sharma argues the tools have changed rather than the CFO's core job, and that clean, reconciled data was the company's main focus during diligence.
- • Private market activity rebounded in Q4 2025 and continued into Q1 2026 before slowing, per Ocorian's Calcagno.
Summary
Private market activity has been volatile in recent years. Vincent Calcagno, head of US growth at Ocorian, a global asset servicer, described the market as swinging back and forth like "Jekyll and Hyde." He said 2021 and 2022 were sellers' markets, activity fell through 2024 and the first half of 2025, picked up in the fourth quarter of 2025, continued in Q1 2026, and then fell off again.
Amid that brief upturn, EvoluteIQ, an AI automation platform, received a $53 million minority growth capital investment from Baird Capital in September 2025, according to CFO Pallav Sharma. Sharma said preparation that included reliable reporting, a forecast the board generally trusts, and a business ready for scrutiny at any time helped secure the deal, alongside investor confidence. He described the process as a balance between a seller's forward-looking pipeline and a buyer's need to assess the reliability of current data, forecasts and controls, with uncertainty priced in.
Calcagno said private equity due diligence now requires CFOs to perform regression analysis and heavy analysis of portfolio company data, forcing them to take on additional analytical work beyond their existing roles. Sharma disagreed that CFOs need to return to school, saying "What has changed is the tools." He noted that investors' expanded analysis of the same data naturally leads to higher expectations of what CFOs do with it. Sharma said Baird's data requests did not overwhelm EvoluteIQ because the company first ensured its data was clean, consistent and reconciled across entities, after which Baird's questions were collaborative and focused on business drivers.
Sharma recommended that CFOs prepare by understanding data capture, anticipating investor questions, thinking like an investor, building a strong analyst team, and using AI tools. He also advised using rolling forecasts across base, upside, downside and stress (or "edge") cases, which he said he updates monthly and presents to the board quarterly.
Amid that brief upturn, EvoluteIQ, an AI automation platform, received a $53 million minority growth capital investment from Baird Capital in September 2025, according to CFO Pallav Sharma. Sharma said preparation that included reliable reporting, a forecast the board generally trusts, and a business ready for scrutiny at any time helped secure the deal, alongside investor confidence. He described the process as a balance between a seller's forward-looking pipeline and a buyer's need to assess the reliability of current data, forecasts and controls, with uncertainty priced in.
Calcagno said private equity due diligence now requires CFOs to perform regression analysis and heavy analysis of portfolio company data, forcing them to take on additional analytical work beyond their existing roles. Sharma disagreed that CFOs need to return to school, saying "What has changed is the tools." He noted that investors' expanded analysis of the same data naturally leads to higher expectations of what CFOs do with it. Sharma said Baird's data requests did not overwhelm EvoluteIQ because the company first ensured its data was clean, consistent and reconciled across entities, after which Baird's questions were collaborative and focused on business drivers.
Sharma recommended that CFOs prepare by understanding data capture, anticipating investor questions, thinking like an investor, building a strong analyst team, and using AI tools. He also advised using rolling forecasts across base, upside, downside and stress (or "edge") cases, which he said he updates monthly and presents to the board quarterly.
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