Explore the Services
Rosewood offers professional technical due diligence services that provide our customers with the information necessary to evaluate the risks, costs, and opportunities associated with the technology dimension of any investment or acquisition.
1
Internal
Due Diligence
Companies that are the target of an acquisition or investment may wish to prepare themselves for the technology assessment.
Rosewood offers a reverse due diligence service, whereby we perform a full technical due diligence assessment of the company. We provide feedback in the form of recommendations for addressing any risks from an investor’s point of view, and we prepare a report and a data room that may be shared with investors.
Simply being aware of a risk is often an indicator to an investor that a target company’s technology team is on the right track. The reverse due diligence exercise prepares the target company to answer difficult questions and involves the technical team in setting up a roadmap for future progress.
A thorough internal DD smooths the way for the investor, and may be accepted by the investor as adequate for their investment purposes. Rosewood assists our customer by accommodating interviews with the investor, once the external DD starts.
2
Early-Stage
Due Diligence
Investing in a startup company presents a number of risks, some of which are hard to quantify. An essential component of any startup is the quality of the tech team and of the architecture on which the team is building.
Rosewood recognises that the risk of investment is larger in an early stage startup, while the technical infrastructure is less mature. We offer a structured approach to evaluating early stage startups on behalf of seed funders, angel investors and venture capital firms.
Our early stage due diligence process focuses on evaluating the technical team and the direction in which the architecture is evolving. We point out strengths and areas of improvement.
Beyond seed and angel funding, companies have a more established team of technologists, with a platform that has matured beyond the minimum viable product. At this level, Rosewood’s due diligence process retains a focus on team and process, but puts additional attention to the state of the software, areas for improvement, and scalability.
3
Later-Stage
Due Diligence
Companies that are subject to corporate financing - albeit as a strategic investment, acquisition target, or buy-out - may be in a more mature phase of their lifecycle, or may be enjoying strong growth, leading to an increase in the size of the tech team and the challenges this team faces.
For larger, more mature organisations, the Rosewood due diligence process covers the spectrum of technology concerns - team, infrastructure, software architecture, scalability, security, durability, development process, and quality assurance. We use all the results of the investigation to present a holistic view of the risks and opportunities inherent in the target company’s technology platforms.
In certain scenarios, the investor may wish to focus on particular aspects of the target company’s platform - for example scalability or security. During the preparation phase, we ensure that we understand the areas of concern for the investor, and we pay particular attention to the risks inherent in these areas.
Areas of Assessment
During a technical due diligence, we consider the following areas of the organisation's technology assets, which we document in the due diligence report. The purpose of our report is to enable the investor to make an informed decision regarding the risks inherent in the technology platform and the potential costs involved in maintaining and expanding the platform.
People
People are the heart of any business. We evaluate development, operational, and support teams, including their structure, skills, and technical competencies.
Software
We assess the architecture of the target platform, along with the source code that implements it, to determine the level of performance, scalability, and maintainability.
Process
We evaluate a number of processes, including operational monitoring, SecOps, DevOps, quality assurance (QA), and the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Infrastructure
Many platforms rely on cloud infrastructure, whilst some benefit from on-premise hardware. We evaluate the inventory of infrastructure for both cases.
Product
Technology embodies the product. To assess the technology, we also evaluate how well suited the tech is to the product, and how well it supports the product vision.
Security
Although we do not conduct vulnerability and penetration tests, we asses whether the existing tests, mechanisms, and processes adequately secure the platform.
Our Workflow
Our proven technology due diligence process is composed of five major steps, executed in a timely fashion, so that we can limit impact on the target company.
01
Preparation
During this initial phase, our goal is twofold. First, we set out to understand the requirements of our customers. These requirements differ depending on the type of the investor, their particular goals, and the stage of the target company’s lifecycle. Second, our goal is to become acquainted with the target company and to be introduced to their technology team. During this phase, an information request is shared with the target company, giving them a structure to use for preparing for the upcoming meetings and interviews. The questionnaire is customised to suit the requirements of our customer.
03
Debrief
Once the information gathering phase is complete and we have performed a high-level analysis of the information, we then hold a debriefing session with our customers. We provide a summary of the most important risk factors we have identified, and present a headline-type overview of the target company’s technology department. The session provides our customers with the opportunity to request further investigation of any aspect of the findings.
05
Closure
This final phase involves discussing the conclusions, the identified risks, and the mitigation measures documented in the report. During this phase, we offer our customers the option of doing follow-up assessments. In our experience, software-driven companies rapidly go through lifecycle changes - and it is necessary to safeguard the investment by ensuring that technical recommendations are implemented as agreed on. The closure phase sets out a roadmap for future interactions with the technology team, and delivers the information that our customers require to reduce the risk of technology-related problems arising in the future.
02
Interview
This phase comprises information gathering activities. The target company puts together a response to the information request, and shares the supporting documents in a virtual data room. We review the response and, based on that response, schedule on-site or remote interviews with all key technical personnel. We typically require access to monitoring and analytics systems and other relevant data sources.
04
Delivery
The delivery phase follows next. During this phase, we complete the final due diligence report, which includes an executive summary, traffic light report, investment considerations, narrative, technical glossary, technical documentation, and recommendations for future development. The report is supplemented with a summary in presentation (PowerPoint) format.