In global private equity, financial modeling has long been the North Star. But increasingly, the firms building enduring value aren’t just fluent in valuation—they’re fluent in culture.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in deals bridging the U.S. and Asia, particularly India and Southeast Asia, where economic growth has accelerated faster than the frameworks supporting generational transition. And yet, many deals that look perfect on paper end up quietly crumbling—not because of flawed spreadsheets, but because of fractured relationships.
Ankit Shrivastava, founder and managing partner at Enventure, a U.S.–India private equity firm, has made cultural alignment a central pillar of his investment thesis. “Financial modeling and governance structures can be replicated—but cultural intelligence and trust cannot,” he says.
Enventure, which operates at what Shrivastava calls the “meeting point of capital, legacy and transformation,” has learned that cultural dynamics aren’t just footnotes in a deal—they are the framework.
Take leadership styles, for instance. “The U.S. follows a decentralized leadership structure that operates at a fast pace. The leadership style in India focuses on hierarchical management through consensus-based decision making,” he explains. “Decision-making processes that appear slow to outsiders are actually following cultural norms which ensure both harmony and respect.”
That kind of nuance, while easy to dismiss, becomes mission-critical when deals enter the integration phase. Misreading the room—literally or figuratively—can sour a promising transition. “Leaders in America value directness yet Southeast Asian and Indian leaders prefer diplomatic communication approaches,” says Shrivastava. “Team members interpret silent responses as agreement or direct statements as disrespectful.”
This isn’t just theoretical friction. It can lead to a total breakdown of post-deal operations—especially in founder-led businesses where informal systems have held authority for decades. Enventure’s approach is different. “We develop legal agreements that establish clear boundaries yet protect the vital business relationships that exist between partners,” Shrivastava says. Contracts, in other words, aren’t a blunt tool—they’re a bridge.
This philosophy underpins Enventure’s ValueEdge™ integration model, a proprietary framework built to combine operational performance with cultural continuity. “Our approach starts with listening, not restructuring. In founder-led or family-run companies, there’s often a deep emotional tie to ‘how things are done,'” Shrivastava says. “We honor that by spending the first 90 days understanding people, processes, and traditions—what we call the ’empathy immersion’ phase.”
From there, ValueEdge™ introduces trust-based governance, aligns talent with roles they thrive in (not just inherited titles), and upgrades systems through local champions. It’s not a playbook. It’s a conversation.
That human-centered approach also informs how Enventure evaluates risk. “One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned at Enventure is this: a deal can look perfect on paper—and still fall apart in practice,” Shrivastava says. “The red flags often aren’t in the spreadsheets; they’re in the boardroom dynamics, the hallway conversations, or what’s left unsaid on Zoom.”
For Shrivastava, the most telling signals of risk are relational. “If a founder or leadership team shows reluctance to share decision-making or avoids discussing succession with clarity, it’s usually not just a delay—it’s a signal they may not be emotionally ready to let go.”
In many of the geographies where Enventure operates, this emotional calculus is the defining context for succession. “In many emerging markets—especially places like India and Southeast Asia—founders don’t just build businesses. They build legacies,” he says. “They’re looking for a partner who will honor what they’ve built while helping it grow beyond their lifetime.”
This is where co-ownership models are quietly gaining traction. “They offer a powerful middle ground—allowing founders to stay involved, retain influence, and gradually transition control while benefiting from professionalization, capital, and global access,” says Shrivastava.
The trust that emerges from this approach, he argues, is the real asset. “Founders feel seen, not sidelined. Their voice matters in the next chapter. And for us as investors, it creates a smoother transition and a more committed operating team.”
In a global market where capital is increasingly commoditized, Enventure is betting on something harder to scale: trust. “In a world where capital is abundant but trust is scarce, co-ownership is emerging as the new currency of partnership.”
If the next generation of private equity winners are defined not by who bought best, but by who built best, firms that prioritize culture over control may find themselves leading the charge.