Pradip Ruparelia

Founding team member in a Venture Capital - backed D2C startup founded by Influencer Raj Shamani, building creator-led brands in Home & Kitchen Appliance Category & Fragrances with marquee investors like Lightspeed, Kae Capital and Prominent Angels.

Key Responsibilities & Achievements:

• Established Scalable Finance Infrastructure: Built the finance function from scratch, including systems, controls, audit readiness, and reporting workflows, enabling financial visibility and operational discipline across a fast-scaling startup.
• Enabled Cost Efficiency & Burn Control: Introduce spend visibility tools and expense approval workflows that helped optimise the monthly burn rate; actively monitored cost centres to drive cost-efficient growth.
• Investor Reporting: Owned preparation and review of monthly MIS, board decks, business KPIs, and direct founder/investor communication packs.
• Statutory Compliance: Achieved 100% on-time compliance across GST, TDS, Income Tax, Companies Act, FEMA, and ESOP regulations; proactively managed filings, reconciliations, and statutory disclosures.
• Fundraising Execution Across 3 Rounds: Led key aspect of fund raise execution, managing investor interactions, financial and legal due diligence for all three Seed, Pre-Series A and Series A funding rounds and coordination with legal counsel for finalising term sheet, SHA, SSA and other agreements.
• Strategic Planning & Business Partnership: Actively contributed to key strategic decisions by collaborating with founders and cross-functional teams on pricing, product launches, cost control, and vendor agreements. Brought strong business acumen to align financial planning with operational execution, supporting sustainable growth and profitability.
• Drove Strategic Finance Partnerships : Worked closely with founders and cross-functional heads on pricing, GTM planning, cost control, and vendor negotiations ensuring alignment between financial plans and business priorities.
• Business Modelling: Developed contribution margin models, break-even analyses, and SKU-level profitability to support pricing decisions and growth strategy evaluation.
• Process Automation: Customised MIS structures for brand-wise performance and streamlined processes of payments, collection and cost centres tracking.
• Closed Audit & Financials with High Quality: Finalised financials with zero audit qualifications; handled complex disclosures including CCPS allotments, ESOP accounting, deferred revenue, and Schedule III compliance.
• Legal & Commercial Reviews: Actively participated in reviewing commercial agreements, term sheets, and vendor contracts from a finance and risk standpoint, ensuring both cost-effectiveness and legal safeguard.
• ESOP Implementation: Structured ESOP plan including grant letters, vesting schedules, expense recognition, and employee communication; coordinated valuation and accounting treatment.

Worked in a mid-sized CA firm with diverse client exposure across real estate, manufacturing, service, pharma, and trading sectors. Independently led the firm's GST vertical and managed statutory audits, taxation, and operational matters.

Key Achievements & Contributions

• Led End-to-End GST Practice Development :

Launched and scaled the firm's entire GST practice post implementation of the new law; personally handled high value assessments, departmental audits, refund claims, and advance rulings for clients in real estate, export, and services. Conducted 12+ seminars on GST awareness, and managed a wide portfolio across real estate, exporters, service, and manufacturing clients.

• Statutory Audits for Listed & Mid-Sized Entities :

Led statutory audits and quarterly limited reviews for listed and unlisted companies across real estate, manufacturing, pharma, and service sectors. Developed audit programmes to address audit risks and conducted risk assessment procedures aligned with regulatory standards and business control environments.

Performed walk-throughs, tested design and implementation of internal controls, and evaluated operating effectiveness as required under the Companies Act. Executed substantive analytical procedures and test of details during audit fieldwork to ensure completeness, accuracy, and integrity of financial reporting.

Reviewed and finalised financial statements as per Schedule III and applicable accounting standards, provided actionable insights on process gaps, internal controls, and audit remediation strategies and collaborated with clients' finance teams to ensure audit-readiness and timely sign-offs.

• Direct Taxation & Advisory

Finalised tax audits and income tax returns for companies, LLPs, firms, and individuals; managed income tax assessments up to the ITO level and supported seniors in appellate proceedings before CIT(A) and ITAT. Also handled transfer pricing audits under Section 92 and applications under the Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme.

Provided end-to-end advisory on TDS, advance tax computations, and foreign remittances; interpreted DTAA provisions for international clients and oversaw the preparation of Form 15CA/CB to ensure compliance with cross-border taxation requirements.

• Client Relationship Management (Domestic & International) : Built long-term client relationships through personalised advisory, timely filings, and transparent communication; handled clients with cross-border operations and international remittance needs.
• Improved Financial Controls & Reporting for Clients : Provided recommendations to clients on control gaps during audits; helped implement process changes that reduced financial misstatements and non-compliance in subsequent periods.
• Managed Secretarial Filings & Company Incorporation : Executed incorporation of private limited companies and LLPs (including foreign director/shareholding cases), handled annual filings (AOC-4, MGT-7) and other MCA forms.
• Implemented Accounting & ERP Transitions : Migrated client data to new accounting software, supervised bookkeeping for 300+ employee organisations, and ensured accuracy in closing entries and financial reporting.
• Liaised for Funding & Compliance Projects: Prepared CMA data and assisted clients in securing project finance by liaising with lenders, improving presentation quality and lender acceptance rate.

• Audit Execution, Finalisation & Financial Reporting

Gained foundational experience in statutory audits, tax audits, and accounting across sectors such as manufacturing, trading, hospitality, and IT. Conducted statutory audits for private limited companies, prepared audit working papers, and performed analytical procedures including variance analysis in line with ICAI and regulatory standards. Participated in finalisation of financial statements, audit report drafting, and end-to-end execution of audits at client locations.

• Tax Audit, Service Tax & Client Coordination

Handled tax audits and income tax return filings for corporates and individuals, including estimation of advance tax and TDS. Gained working knowledge of service tax and MVAT compliance, including departmental filings and reconciliations. Actively coordinated with client teams, strengthened communication skills, and developed strong technical grounding in financial reporting, audit documentation, and client servicing.