ABOUT THE FIRM
M&A advisory from a firm that has also operated companies.
Crescent Capital Advisors is a boutique M&A advisory firm. We work with sponsors, family offices, and founders who are buying companies, raising capital, or preparing to sell. Alongside that, we run a technology practice that assesses the systems of the companies in those deals. Both practices are senior led, and a client can engage either one without the other.
WHY THE FIRM EXISTS
We built the firm we wanted after years inside large institutions.
The firm was founded after years of working inside large institutions. Investors and companies working across borders and into emerging markets could rarely get independent M&A advice with senior people on the file.
Those clients were already sophisticated buyers. They needed an adviser whose recommendation was not shaped by another desk in the same institution, and who stayed on the deal after the pitch. We founded the firm to provide that kind of adviser.
We connect companies with the capital and the counterparties they need to do what they have decided to do, and we tell them when the plan will not work.
The services are buy-side advisory, sell-side advisory, and capital raising. The Technology & AI practice operates alongside them. It runs diligence before close and technology execution across the hold.
TWO PRACTICES
M&A Advisory and Technology & AI Advisory.
Transactions and capital
M&A Advisory
Buy-side and sell-side advisory, and capital raising across debt and equity. Middle market and lower middle market, domestic and cross-border.
- Origination, valuation work, and modeling against your underwriting standard
- Sell-side process management, from exit readiness through negotiation
- Debt, equity, and alternative financing including EB-5
- Cross-border mandates and introductions into foreign markets
Systems, security, and data
Technology & AI
Technology due diligence before close and technology execution across the hold, led by operators who have held the CTO and CISO seats through a full private equity hold and exit.
- PRISM™ diligence: technical debt, security posture, and AI readiness priced in dollars
- CLEAR™ execution: the hold-period plan, run rather than handed over
- Fractional CTO, CISO, CAIO, and CDO leadership where the seat is empty
- Sell-side technology readiness before a buyer's diligence team arrives
Most advisory firms stop at the financial model and buy a technology assessment from a vendor when a deal needs one. We run both, so the person writing the technology finding is in the same conversation as the person negotiating price. The two practices sell different work. M&A advisory advises on a transaction, and the Technology & AI practice takes an operating seat inside the company. Clients engage them separately, and most engage only one.
HOW WE WORK
The method is transparency through every step.
Results come from preparation and from keeping the client's objective in front of every decision, including the decisions that cost us fee income.
Unbiased advice, including when it costs us
We give the advice we would act on. That includes telling a client not to do the deal, or that the price they want is not in the market, when our short-term financial interest runs the other way.
Analysis before recommendation
Every recommendation comes with the analysis behind it: proprietary analytical tools, sector deal benchmarks, and market intelligence. We present it so a client can check the reasoning rather than take the conclusion on trust.
An extension of your team
We work inside the client's process. Stakeholders see the same information at the same time, so the deal does not depend on one person remembering to forward an email.
Discretion and information security
Confidentiality protocols cover every engagement, and the firm holds professional liability coverage. Deal information goes only to the people who need it to close the transaction.
Preparation before execution
The work that decides an outcome is done before outreach starts. The mandate is written down, the target universe is named, and the model is built on the target's own numbers. This preparation takes time in the first two weeks. It usually shortens the process overall.
Current data and analytical tools
We keep investing in analytical capability and market intelligence. A benchmark set that is three years old produces a valuation nobody should act on, so we renew our data rather than license it once.
THE TECHNOLOGY PRACTICE
The technology practice assesses a company, then leads the execution.
Sujit Maharana, Managing Director, Technology & AI Advisory, leads this side of the firm. The practice produces a defensible assessment of a company's technology before a deal closes and runs the execution across the hold that follows. The work is led by an operator who has held the CTO and CISO seats through a full hold and exit. It is engaged on its own: a technology engagement does not assume a transaction and does not lead to one.
PRISM™ diligence before close
The assessment covers five dimensions of a target's technology. Every finding is given a dollar figure, a remediation window, and a classification: a gate on the deal, a price adjustment, a change to the thesis, or a lever after close.
CLEAR™ execution across the hold
We run the modernization plan ourselves. Initiatives are sequenced to the hold and tied to EBITDA, cost, or the multiple. Monthly reporting is written so a GP can take it into an operating review.
Fractional CTO, CISO, CAIO, and CDO
Embedded leadership where the role is vacant or under-resourced, on a virtual, fractional, or interim basis. The person holds real executive scope and reports to the board. The company does not have to wait through a twelve-month search.
AI governance a board can approve
The AI Governance Program takes a portfolio company from AI systems nobody has inventoried to a governance posture a board and a regulator can review. The Enterprise AI Control Plane is the target architecture the program is built on.
The economics of what AI costs
Three frameworks cover AI economics: AI Value Creation, AI Cost Optimization, and AI Value Attribution. They answer where to allocate AI spend, how much of it to recover, and how to verify what it produced. Any AI figure that goes into a board pack comes with the evidence behind it.
Four bands, scoped before kickoff
Assess, Improve, Lead, and Exit are named, timeline-bound, fixed-fee tracks. Each one starts with an assessment, and the assessment is a usable deliverable whether or not anything follows it.
WHO DOES THE WORK
Senior people stay on the file.
The person who helps write the strategy is the person who oversees the execution. Our senior investment professionals average more than eleven years of tenure. There is no hand-off to a junior team once the mandate is signed, and nobody on your deal is seeing their first cycle. The two practices have two leads. Bass Zanjani, Managing Director, leads M&A advisory and owns the mandates on that side. Sujit Maharana, Managing Director, Technology & AI Advisory, leads the technology practice and owns the engagements on his. Whichever practice you engage, that lead stays on the file from the first meeting through delivery.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What people ask before the first call.
- What does boutique mean in practice?
The people who take the meeting are the people who do the work, and we run a limited number of mandates at a time. It also means we are independent, so the recommendation is not shaped by another desk with a product to place.
- Where do you work?
Domestically and cross-border. The network reaches Europe, the Middle East, and emerging markets. A large part of the practice is helping investors and companies move capital between those markets and the United States.
- Do we have to engage both practices?
No. Most clients engage one. An M&A advisory mandate does not require the technology assessment, and a technology engagement does not require a transaction.
- Who is accountable once the engagement starts?
One senior lead owns the file and stays on it. M&A advisory mandates are led by Bass Zanjani. Technology engagements are led by Sujit Maharana. That does not change halfway through, and neither of them hands your file to somebody you have not met.
- How is the firm paid?
Fees are agreed in writing before any work starts and depend on the mandate. We do not publish fees on this website, because the terms belong in the engagement letter rather than in marketing copy.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you are trying to get done.
A few lines is enough: the acquisition you are working on, the capital you need to raise, the exit you are preparing for, or the technology in a company you are underwriting. We will tell you whether it is work we can run and what the first month looks like.
A brief goes to the lead for the practice it concerns, Bass or Sujit. If it is not work we can run well, we will say so rather than take it.