Frazier & Deeter has spent the past six years building a niche advising UK-headquartered technology and life sciences start-ups on expansion into the US.
The Atlanta-headquartered accounting firm opened its London office in 2019 and has since grown its UK client services team from seven people to more than 80. According to Frazier & Deeter’s global transfer pricing (TP) practice leader Jaydeep Menon, the firm’s success has been built on providing founders with practical commercial advice rather than focusing solely on tax compliance.
In this interview with ITR, Menon discusses the firm’s UK-US expansion proposition, how it works with start-ups and scale-ups and why recent private equity investment in the firm is creating new opportunities for growth.
ITR: How did Frazier & Deeter establish its UK practice, and how did you become involved?
Menon: Frazier & Deeter is a 40-plus-year-old accounting firm headquartered in Atlanta. We have 16 offices across the US, UK and India and have traditionally been very strong in audit and tax. TP became a major focus when we opened our first international office in London in 2019.
I joined from the big four after previously working with our UK managing partner Malcolm Joy at a large consulting firm. We started with a team of around seven people and have since expanded our UK client services team to more than 80. Along the way, we brought in specialists covering areas such as TP, global mobility, audit and R&D tax incentives.
Initially, the UK office was intended to support US audit clients with UK subsidiaries, but we quickly realised there was another opportunity. Many start-ups and scale-ups emerging from areas such as Cambridge and Oxford were receiving funding and looking to expand into the US as their first international market.
A lot of those businesses were underserved. Larger firms were often not interested at that stage of the company’s development, while network firms typically meant that clients had to coordinate separate advisers across multiple jurisdictions. Because our UK business operates as part of the broader US firm, we were able to provide a far more integrated service.
ITR: What makes advising start-ups and scale-ups different from working with established multinational companies?
Menon: The biggest difference is that founders are rarely looking for more theory. They can already access an enormous amount of information online, and many are extremely knowledgeable. What they really want is practical experience.
Typically, the questions are: What problems will I face when I expand into the US? What are the consequences of structuring my intellectual property in a particular way? What is the best way to move funding around the group? These are practical business questions rather than technical tax ones.
Many of these businesses are still building their internal processes. Some may not yet have sophisticated finance functions. If you immediately start discussing TP rules or accounting jargon, you lose them. They need someone who can quickly explain what matters most and help them prioritise what needs attention now versus what can wait until the business is further along in its development.
When I first speak to a founder, I often tell them not to worry about TP as a concept. The first step is understanding their objectives around funding, intellectual property and growth. Once you understand those goals, you can identify the three to five issues that require immediate attention and bring in the right specialists.
That approach helps build trust. Clients know we are thinking about the wider picture rather than focusing on a single technical issue in isolation.
ITR: How important is the interaction between TP and R&D tax incentives for these businesses?
Menon: It is very important, particularly in the technology and life sciences sectors where many companies are pre-revenue and heavily focused on R&D.
Those businesses need to think carefully about where value is created, where intellectual property is held and how growth will be funded. At the same time, they want to maximise available R&D reliefs without creating complications during future due diligence exercises or investment rounds.
We strengthened our capabilities in this area by acquiring a specialist Cambridge-based R&D firm shortly after establishing our UK practice. That allowed us to combine R&D expertise with international expansion advice, which is particularly invaluable for innovative businesses looking to enter the US market.
ITR: Can Frazier & Deeter continue advising clients as they become much larger organisations?
Menon: Absolutely. The underlying principles do not change. Whether a company has two entities or 100 subsidiaries, the core TP questions remain very similar.
A lot of our clients stay with us after securing larger funding rounds because they understand we are not simply providing documentation. We are helping them establish operating models that can scale internationally.
Many firms focus heavily on compliance documents. For us, the more important issue is ensuring the client has the right operating model and the right advice. Documentation can increasingly be automated, but strategic decision-making cannot.
We have worked with companies that started as early-stage businesses and later received significant levels of investment. While I cannot name specific clients, some have become well-known players in their sectors while continuing to follow structures and operating models we helped design early in their growth journey.
ITR: Why has the UK-US corridor become such a key focus for the firm?
Menon: For many UK technology and life sciences businesses, the US is the first destination after a significant funding round. That is where they see the largest opportunities for raising capital, building customer relationships and scaling their operations.
The US is not always easy to navigate. It has a complex federal and state tax environment, and businesses often underestimate how difficult it can be to understand all the relevant obligations.
Our advantage is that we already have an established US platform behind the UK business. When a client expands into the US, we do not simply hand them off to somebody else. We can connect them directly with specialists covering tax, audit, valuation and advisory work.
That creates continuity for the client. I might be involved in the initial strategic conversations in the UK, but I know there is a team on the ground in the US that can handle implementation and compliance. That joined-up approach is a significant differentiator.
ITR: How has private equity investment changed the firm?
Menon: The biggest change has been scale. Since receiving private equity backing from General Atlantic in 2025, we have completed five acquisitions across different US markets, including locations such as Boston, Minneapolis and Baltimore.
Each acquisition brings a different client portfolio and area of specialisation. Boston, for example, has a strong life sciences ecosystem, which complements our existing work with companies emerging from Cambridge and Oxford.
The acquisitions have allowed us to introduce international advisory capabilities to businesses that previously focused primarily on domestic issues. Many already have international operations but have not necessarily approached cross-border growth in a strategic way.
At the same time, the profession is evolving, and AI is one of the developments changing how we serve clients. Internally, that helps us improve efficiency. But the bigger opportunity is using technology to develop new services and provide greater value to clients. I do not think AI is about replacing people. It is about helping firms deliver advice more effectively while enabling professionals to focus on higher-value work.
ITR: What are your ambitions for the next phase of growth?
Menon: Historically, most of our TP work has involved UK-headquartered businesses expanding into the US. The next step is helping US-headquartered businesses expand into other regions around the world.
We have built significant capabilities within the firm. We now have approximately 1,100 people globally and have developed specialist teams not only in the UK and US but also in markets such as India.
My ambition is to position Frazier & Deeter as a leading adviser for US mid-market companies embarking on international expansion. That means supporting growth into Europe, the UK and Asia-Pacific markets while continuing to build on the expertise we developed through the UK-US corridor.
The objective is to be the firm that businesses turn to when navigating international expansion for the first time. That has been our strength in the UK, and I believe it can become our strength globally as well.
