FOR FUNDS AND INDEPENDENT SPONSORS
We originate deals for funds and sponsors, assess the technology before close, and run the sale at exit.
Funds and independent sponsors reach the firm at two points. Before the capital is committed, the questions are where the asset comes from and whether the technology inside it supports the investment thesis. Across the hold, the plan has to be executed by someone accountable to the board rather than to a workstream. Each mandate below is hired on its own terms.
WHERE FUNDS COME IN
Four situations where funds bring in outside help.
Each of these is handled by someone who has been on the operating side of a PE-backed company, not only the advisory side of one.
A mandate and no proprietary flow
The auctions are priced by the time you see them, and the off-market owners do not answer a cold email.
A target whose thesis depends on its technology
The model assumes a platform that scales into new customers and new geographies. Nobody on the deal team can say whether it does.
A portfolio company between technology leaders
The technology leader role is open and the hold period has started. A full-time search takes months, and the value creation plan does not allow for that delay.
An exit where the buyer will run diligence
Whatever a buyer finds in diligence is priced into the offer or held back from it. Finding and fixing those issues before the process starts costs less than negotiating over them later.
FOUR MANDATES
Start at the one that matches the stage you are at.
For a fund or sponsor with a written mandate
Buy-Side Advisory
Origination against your criteria: sector, size, geography, and timeline. Owners are approached directly, so the process is controlled by you rather than by a seller's banker.
- Retained search for proprietary flow, worked outside an auction
- Criteria agreed in writing before any outreach starts
- Screening done by the firm, so the deal team sees only targets that fit the criteria
For a deal team underwriting an asset
Technology Diligence
We assess the technology, security, data, and AI inside a target before the capital is committed. Each finding is sorted by whether it must be resolved before close, changes the price, threatens the investment thesis, or creates a value-creation lever. Each has a dollar consequence and a remediation window attached.
- PRISM™ diligence written in board language, on the deal team's timeline
- The same operator stays through the first hundred days, so the plan is built on the diligence findings
- Fractional CTO, CISO, CAIO, or CDO leadership across the hold
For portfolio companies selling into PE
Business Development
Introductions from a national network of funds, sponsors, and family offices to the accounts a portfolio company wants to win. Where the buyer is itself a PE-backed operating business, a warm introduction reaches it faster than a sales team working from a list.
- Work from the value proposition through to the warm introduction
- Run for the portfolio company, reported to the sponsor
- Target accounts and buyer criteria agreed before outreach starts
For a fund approaching an exit
Sell-Side Advisory
Process management for the sale of a portfolio company. We run the diligence a buyer would run against the asset first, so issues that would lower the multiple are fixed while there is still time.
- A buyer list built for the asset rather than pulled from a database
- Technology and security findings closed before the data room opens
- A written checkpoint at each stage of the process
Each mandate is scoped and engaged on its own. A fund that buys origination is never required to buy technology diligence, and most diligence clients arrive with the deal already in hand.
Frequently asked questions
What funds ask before sending a brief.
- Can we hire one mandate without the others?
Yes, and most clients do. Origination, diligence, business development, and sell-side work are scoped and priced separately, and nothing in one is contingent on buying another.
- We have an internal operating team. Where does the technology work fit?
It works beside that team. An operating partner covering eight companies cannot also serve as CTO in any of them. The assessment gives that partner an independent baseline rather than the portfolio company's own account of itself. The fractional roles cover the gap between portfolio-company hires.
- Do you publish the mandates you are working?
No. Live mandates and the companies inside them do not appear on this site, in a newsletter, or in a sample document. Judge the work on the process and the references instead of on a pipeline.
- What size range do you work in?
Lower middle market to mid-market on both sides: PE-backed companies where technology is a material part of the investment thesis, and investors deploying capital in that range.
- We are an independent sponsor without committed capital. Does that change anything?
It changes the sequencing rather than the work. The mandate is written the same way, and the capital partner is named at the point in the process where a seller needs to see one.
Send a brief
Tell us where the deal is, and who is already involved.
A live process, a mandate you have not filled, a target that needs diligence before the investment committee meets, or a portfolio company without a technology leader. You get a straight answer on which mandate fits and what the first piece of work would be.
Bass Zanjani leads M&A Advisory. Sujit Maharana leads Technology & AI. A brief goes to whichever of them it concerns.