Vett your Investment Risk in Tech Startups with IT Due Diligence
We mitigate technology risk for venture capital and private equity firms, and companies looking to invest in, merge, acquire or restructure, by helping them to instantly understand the strategic value of the transaction.
Challenges
What are the challenges that VCs and PEs face when investing in technology startups?
-
Wasted resources due to high failure rate.
~20% of businesses fail in their first year and ~50% fail by the end of five years, often due to insufficient capital, inadequate revenue, operational inefficiency or combination. -
Technical debt.
The cost of a future rework(s) to code or another technical product due to choosing easy or wrong solutions today. -
Inefficiency due to bad IT infrastructure.
Many startup teams are using less-than-ideal IT solutions. It can cause low productivity, especially as the business scales with venture investment. -
Damage from major digital events.
Ransomware is growing increasingly common and has caused huge problems for venture capital tech. Similarly, corporate espionage, business disruptions, and tech failure can cause major downtime. -
Wrong IT services and resources.
Choosing an experienced financial IT services provider is essential. This can also empower PE companies to better manage their risks and prepare for the worst.
Our value proposition
We provide an independent analysis and validation by trusted experts of the target company’s IT scalability and security, software quality, quality of technology team, reality of technical roadmap, data processing efficiency, peer comparison, technology risk and opportunities – helping investors instantly understand the strategic value of the transaction.
Post-transaction, we can help with delivery of services and provide the needed flexibility, speed, and quality of IT development.
For more mature invested companies who’ve seen their management team disappear, we can engage as interim IT department.
Estafet’s IT Due Diligence gives
Intelligence
Allowing investors to ask the right questions about IT during a due diligence process to ensure IT is a successful enabler.
Insights
Clear, concise observations with pragmatic, achievable and actionable recommendations.
Informed decisions
Ability to quickly and easily see which problems are fixable or not and decide to walk away or avoid losing out on good deals.
Alignment
Better alignment and vetted business and IT checks post transaction through the use of a Functional blueprint approach,, helping the company stay on course.
IT Due Diligence looks into
Architecture
How solid is the backbone of the solution related to scaling capabilities, reliability, security, data protection, and processes alignment.
Development
How well is the product or platform development roadmap aligned to the vision and what is the current state of progress against business commitments.
Processes
What is the basis for continuous development and innovation and how well automation is embedded into the processes; do processes support the vision roadmap.
Execution Risk
Assessing the skills gap within the startup and how solid is the technical expertise capable of delivering of the technology solution.
Business Model
How well does the technology framework support the business model related to scalability, maintainability, continuity and innovation.
The end result
Validated Analysis Report
- Quality of technology team
- Quality of software
- IT scalability and security
- Viability of the technical roadmap
- Efficiency in the data processing
- Tech firm peer comparison
- Opportunities and threats
Technical Roadmap
Based on our proven Functional Blueprint report we deliver understanding of the key milestones that the startup needs to achieve to stay on the flight path.
Why Estafet?
Unbiased view
We engage in an independent, unbiased assessment and are not driven by specific startups goals or business impact. We provide a clear, outsider view on what the IT landscape reality is and will dedicate the needed time to do the assessment thoroughly.
Trusted experts
We hold 20+ years of IT development and delivery services and have been trusted by many large enterprises in the UK. With dedicated experts, whose sole focus is on the due diligence (and not also on running an IT department), we save the investor from this risk.
Startup domain knowledge
We know the culture of start-ups and scale-ups, and we can understand the business quickly. We have experience across different sectors with particular knowledge of FinTech, Data tech, and Biotech.
Pricing
Pricing is net, exclusive of taxes and expenses related to onsite visit (should such be required).
Prices from £4,000.
The prices include full documentation of our findings & recommendations
Prices are subject to contract and VAT.
Deep dive code reviews are an additional 2-20 day option.