BUSAC

Technology Value Diligence · Buy-side

Price the technology story before you sign it.

Before capital is committed, BUSAC determines where technology changes the investment thesis, which claims can be evidenced and what belongs in the first 100-day plan. Every answer carries an evidence level, so the investment committee knows what it is pricing.

Day 1Scope
Day 2Data room
Days 3–5Management
Days 5–10Data tests
Days 10–13Sizing
Days 14–15 · Readout MemoIC session
After closeOpportunity Map

FIXED SCOPE, TEN TO FIFTEEN WORKING DAYS. A COMPLEMENT TO TECHNOLOGY DUE DILIGENCE, NOT A REPLACEMENT.

For Whom, When

For deal teams that have to underwrite a technology story.

Mid-market private equity deal teams, from indication of interest to signing, on targets in software, tech-enabled services, financial services and insurance distribution. Also used at refinancing and continuation decisions, where the same claims have to be believed a second time.

Inputs: the data room, management and technology sessions, and where the process allows it, sample data extracts. Technology Value Diligence complements technology due diligence rather than replacing it: TDD asks whether the systems are sound; we ask what they are worth to the thesis. We work alongside financial and commercial diligence and reconcile to their numbers.

The Three Questions

Three questions. Every answer with an evidence level.

A technology story enters diligence as a narrative. We return it as classified answers: each one marked V1 to V4 by the evidence behind it, so the committee can weigh a modelled range differently from an observed result.

01

Where does technology change the investment thesis?

The automation and value-creation opportunities in this business, sized as indicative ranges from the target’s own operating data, and the technology and AI risks that could break the thesis.

Typical evidence level: V1 to V2

02

Which claims can be evidenced?

Every technology and AI claim in the data room classified by what stands behind it: evidenced in production, observed in a pilot, modelled, or roadmap. Plus the data and evidence readiness to prove the rest after close.

Evidence level per claim: V1 to V4

03

What belongs in the first 100-day plan?

A ranked Opportunity Map for the first 100 days: which hypotheses to test first, with a baseline definition ready to lock, and which to leave alone.

Recommendation per opportunity: pursue, reprice, protect or deprioritise

The Artefact

The Opportunity Map. One page the committee can price.

Every opportunity ranked on value potential, feasibility, risk and evidence quality, each with its evidence level, the counterfactual that would prove it after close and one recommendation. Worked example with illustrative figures, not a client result.

OpportunityIndicative valueEvidence todayWhat would prove itRecommendation
Discount and pricing leakageOrder-to-cash · 12 sales teams €0.9m–€1.6mgross margin, annualised V2 · Modelledpolicy-versus-actual on 24 months of invoiced lines Phased rollout by region, difference-in-differences on a locked leakage baseline Pursuefirst 100 days
Claimed AI servicing automationSeller’s EBITDA bridge €2.4m claimed€0.4m evidenced today V1–V3 · Mixedone team in production, the rest roadmap Re-measurement of the live team against its own pre-deployment baseline Repricebase case on the evidenced part only
Billing and contract data qualityTwo acquired entities Enablerno standalone value; gates two opportunities V1 · Hypothesisedno single customer identifier across entities Nothing yet: the data cannot carry a test until it is reconciled ProtectFoundations, before either test
Field service scheduling engineVendor proposal in the data room €0.2m–€0.5mat a €1.1m licence and integration cost V1 · Hypothesisedvendor benchmark, not this business Interrupted time series on one region, only after the data work above Deprioritiserevisit at mid-hold

The map is the hand-off: after close, the top hypothesis enters Value Lab as Stage 1, with the baseline definition already written. See the Value Lab method

How It Runs

Six steps, inside the deal clock.

  1. ScopeDay 1. The thesis, the claims that matter to it, the data available. Agreed with the deal lead.
  2. Data-room readDay 2. Technology, product, contracts, vendor and data documents read for claims, not for completeness.
  3. Management and technology sessionsDays 3 to 5. Structured sessions with management and the technology lead; the questions are ours, the answers are logged.
  4. Data testsDays 5 to 10. Where extracts are available, we test the claims against the data: baselines, adoption, unit economics. Where they are not, the answer is marked V1 or V2 and says so.
  5. SizingDays 10 to 13. Value pools sized as ranges, risks scored, the memo written.
  6. ReadoutDays 14 to 15. One session with the investment committee, the memo in their hands beforehand.

Ten to fifteen working days as standard. When the process is faster, we compress the scope, not the standard: fewer claims tested, each one still classified.

We work inside the deal clock. We tell the committee which parts of the technology story it is paying for, and which parts it is hoping for.

What You Get

Six fixed outputs the committee can read in twenty minutes.

Fixed scope, fixed duration, structured for IC, LP and buyer review. Every figure carries its evidence level and its source. After close, the map becomes Stage 1 of Value Lab.

Risks to the thesis
Technology and AI risks that could break the investment thesis, scored and mitigated
Opportunities
Automation and value-creation opportunities, ranked
Value ranges
Indicative V1 and V2 value ranges, with the assumptions and the data each range rests on
Evidence readiness
Data and evidence readiness: what can be measured after close, and what cannot yet
100-day Opportunity Map
A ranked first-100-days map, each hypothesis with a baseline definition ready to lock
Recommendation
Per opportunity: pursue, reprice, protect or deprioritise. Delivered as one memo and one session with the investment committee

What It Is Not

Not a pitch, not an audit, not a promise.

  • Not a vendor recommendation. BUSAC sells no technology, resells nothing and receives no commission from any provider.
  • Not an uplift promise. A range at V2 is an estimate, and the memo says so. Proof comes after close, in Value Lab.
  • Not a replacement for technology, financial or commercial due diligence. We complement them and reconcile to their numbers.

See how the memo becomes a measured result.

See the Value Lab method See a diligence pattern
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