M&A Technology & Cyber Due Diligence of an AI SaaS Target
“Another excellent engagement, thanks Eric and team. Your findings on technology and security have, again, helped our Investment Committee drive ahead on an informed basis. Thank you for Amerinda’s professional expertise, targeted advice and speed of execution.”
Head of Commercial Strategy & Investments
CONTEXT
The client desired to invest in an AI-based technology platform (SaaS) company, not only as a way to grow its core business, but also as a way to create new and diverse revenue streams. Given the early stage of this investment (pre-revenue stage), combined with the specialised nature of the target, the client chose Amerinda Advisory to be their technology and cybersecurity due diligence advisor.
ACTION
A platform company’s technology is vital to its ability to differentiate and grow. Its strategy must not only include investment in the technology required to enable its core value proposition, but also the infrastructure and tooling to enable operational efficiency and developer productivity. Its architecture must follow modular design patterns, which provide the foundation for agility and scalability. It must also have clear direction around the types of integration required to support market feature demand. Utilising its deep technology experience, Amerinda provided a capability and risk-focused assessment of the target’s current and planned technology strategy, architecture and operating model. This included their integration and partnership approach, their ability to scale and their development and testing approach (incl. DevOps, CI / CD).
A platform company must have reasonable cybersecurity protections and plans in place for its particular stage of growth. Those protections and plans must also align to the guidelines of the investor, to protect its brand and its investment interests. Amerinda capability-assessed and risk-assessed the target’s cybersecurity posture, inclusive of its network security, application security, data security and vulnerability management. This included authentication, data encryption and retention (incl. PII data) and security monitoring.
RESULT
Amerinda’s assessment provided the required level of clarity and legitimacy for the investment committee to make a quick and effective investment decision. It was able to bring new insights to the table, to the client and to the target, which greatly contributed to the readiness of the platform’s initial launch and to its post-launch roadmap. Amerinda was able to effectively work across all levels of the client and the target, ensuring insight and relationship outcomes were simultaneously achieved across both parties.