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Our client was preparing to invest in a company and needed a thorough yet rapid assessment of the company’s technology, focusing on hidden risks in code quality, data security, and maintainability; any of which could affect valuation and day-one readiness.
Our client, a mid-market private equity firm, was preparing an imminent investment paper for board approval. Before it could commit to the purchase, the firm needed a fast, independent assessment of the target company’s tech. Our client’s internal due diligence process covered commercial and operational assessment but lacked in-house capability to conduct a code-level review.
- Concerns about relying solely on seller documentation and demos.
- A lack of board-ready insights that were clear and thorough enough to inform valuation and share purchase agreement terms.
- A tight deadline.
Before engaging Synetec, our client had relied on seller briefings and a generic IT checklist to make its assessment. While this provided surface-level assurance, it lacked the independence and thoroughness needed to uncover code-level risks.
Taking into account our client’s challenges and needs and the imminent deadline, we devised a plan to rapidly assess the target company’s code quality, data security, maintainability, and indicative hosting costs, using read-only repositories to avoid extracting personal data.
A Rapid Code Review designed specifically for time-critical PE due diligence, working with read-only repositories of data.
Synetec defined a board-focused scope to assess the target company’s architecture quality, security, maintainability and operating costs, requesting read-only access to mimimise friction. Access was granted and we began reviewing the repository immediately. Our team gave provisional findings within a week and completed the end-to-end Rapid Code Review in under two weeks.
We streamlined communication through a single point of contact, giving swift clarifications whenever needed. We also held a short playback session to align outputs with board expectations. Our review included a tailored assessment of key person and maintainability risks, alongside a pragmatic run-rate estimate to inform the valuation and post-close planning. We structured our findings for easy integration with our client’s Investment paper and risk register, using a RAG (red-amber-green) summary and quantified remediation view.
The review gave our client a clear go/no-go risk view in days. Synetec delivered measurable value by quantifying remediation size (cost/time), reducing uncertainty, and avoiding rework during the investment paper process.
Our client was able to make more confident decisions based on knowledge about code quality, security, and long-term maintainability, without the need for a deep technical audit. The board and deal team appreciated the speed of our delivery and concise format of our review, which cut through noise to focus on material risks relevant to the transaction.
Synetec provided a prioritised remediation plan to guide our client with post-close technical improvements, distinguishing quick wins from longer-term structural fixes. We offered optional follow-ups to validate the remediation progress and to refine operational cost estimates as the system scaled.
By carrying out this work, we established for our client a repeatable, high-ROI diligence playbook for future acquisitions. The firm now benefits from faster technology risk assessments, improved decision confidence, and stronger integration planning across its portfolio.
Client Perspective and Reflections:
“Fast, focused code review that highlighted clear risks, clear costs, and exactly what we needed for the investment paper.”
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