The transaction, and the asset underneath it.
Two practices that add value across the investment lifecycle. M&A Advisory takes companies to market, raises debt and equity, and originates acquisitions against a written mandate. Technology & AI assesses the engineering, data, and security of a target before the deal closes. It then takes the CTO, CISO, or CAIO seat while the value creation plan runs.
Two Practices
Two practices, across the investment lifecycle.
Crescent Capital Advisors runs two practices, M&A Advisory and Technology & AI. Each is scoped and engaged on its own terms, and most clients arrive needing one of them.
For investors, owners, and boards approaching a transaction
M&A Advisory
The practice provides partner-led M&A for the middle market. It draws on a national network of private equity funds, independent sponsors, and family offices built over decades. The senior advisor who takes the brief is the one who works the mandate.
- Buy-side search against a written mandate: sector, size, geography, timeline
- Sell-side advisory, positioning and process through to close
- Capital raising across debt and equity for growth, acquisitions, and recapitalizations
- Outsourced business development into PE-backed portfolios, from value proposition to warm introduction
For deal teams, operating partners, and portfolio company boards
Technology & AI
An operator who ran engineering, security, and IT through a full hold and exit assesses the technology in a target before the deal closes. Then the same person takes a seat and runs the work the assessment identified. Every finding includes a number and a time window, so a deal team can act on it.
- PRISM™ due diligence, which classifies each finding as a deal gate, a price adjustment, a thesis risk, or a value creation lever
- CLEAR™ across the hold, with the work sequenced against the value creation plan
- AI value creation, cost, and attribution: where to allocate AI spend, how much of it to recover, and how to verify what it produced
- AI governance and the control plane it runs on, built to answer a buyer’s diligence questions
- Fractional CTO, CISO, CAIO, or CDO in the seat, accountable to the board for the plan’s targets
Representative Outcomes
What we have already done.
These are Technology & AI outcomes from one PE-backed analytics platform over a large-cap firm’s hold period. M&A Advisory mandates and the companies involved in them are not published here.
Platform Growth
120x revenue growth
Services-to-SaaS transformation
Engineering Leadership
120-person org
Full technology org scope
Cybersecurity
Org-wide SOC 2 Type II
All 6 business functions
Cloud & Infrastructure
60% cost reduction
At petabyte scale
Operational Efficiency
3 months → 8 hours
Customer onboarding time
AI & Engineering
30% productivity gain
Engineering modernization
M&A Execution
Multiple transactions
25% post-integration improvement
Patents
2 US patents
Named inventor, AI/ML
Recent Thinking
From the operators doing the work.
The most recent writing from each practice.
M&A Advisory
March 9, 2026
Modern Combat, Asymmetric Warfare: Investing in Robotics & Drones
Cheap drones and autonomous systems are changing the cost-exchange ratio of modern defense and moving capital toward Counter-UAS, sensors and the autonomy supply chain. Where sponsors are transacting, and what the diligence bar looks like.
Technology & AI
July 25, 2026
Why Do CEOs See AI Value but Can't Scale It?
Nearly nine in ten CEOs now see AI value, but only in targeted areas. New BCG data finds that organizational barriers, more than technical ones, are what limit scale.
M&A Advisory
March 3, 2026
Market Heat: What History Teaches Us About Investing During Middle East Conflicts
When Middle East tensions flare, the reflex is to look for the nearest exit. Fifty years of market history, from the 1973 oil embargo to the current tensions, says something different about how equities behave.
Technology & AI
July 22, 2026
How Much Does an AI Audit Cost?
AI audit covers three different things at three very different price points. The cost is set almost entirely by scope: how many AI systems you run, how ready your evidence is, and which standard you're measured against. Before you price an audit, find out whether you need one.
Newsletter
The Portco Brief
A short brief for PE operating and deal teams on how technology affects valuation multiples. Each issue takes about five minutes to read. A new issue goes out most weeks.
Start with what you own, or what you are trying to buy.
You may have a mandate you are ready to run, a target under LOI, a company you are preparing to sell, or a portfolio company whose technology keeps coming up in board meetings. Say which one, and we will tell you which practice fits and what the first piece of work would be.