Technical Due Diligence: Risk Assessment by an Engineer, Not an Analyst
Every acquisition requires technical due diligence. Most PE firms don't have in-house technical staff senior enough to evaluate whether an event-sourced architecture will scale, a .NET Framework codebase is a ticking time bomb, or a 'cloud-native' claim actually holds up.
The big due diligence firms charge £200K+ for full tech DD. PE firms buying smaller targets (£10M–£100M) need something proportionate — senior enough to be credible, focused enough to be fast, and technical enough to find what matters.
I'm Abdul Baruwa, founder of kaano.io. 25+ years of engineering experience across payments, insurance, and enterprise software. I can read code, understand architecture patterns, and — critically — translate technical risk into business language that investors can act on.
What Makes Good Tech DD
Architecture Over Aesthetics
Clean code is nice. Architecture is what matters. Can this system handle 10x the current load? What happens when the founding engineer leaves? Is the "microservices" architecture actually a distributed monolith? These are the questions that determine whether a technology asset is worth the asking price.
Technical Debt as Business Risk
Every codebase has technical debt. The question isn't whether it exists — it's whether it's managed, quantified, and factored into the deal model. A £500K technical debt remediation in year one changes the return profile. Better to know before signing.
Team Capability Assessment
The technology is only as good as the team maintaining it. I evaluate engineering practices, knowledge distribution (bus factor), hiring pipeline, and whether the team can execute the post-acquisition product roadmap without additional investment.
Engagement Structure
Standard Tech DD (1–2 weeks)
Architecture review, codebase analysis, infrastructure assessment, team interviews. Deliverable: executive risk report with remediation roadmap. Fixed price: £15,000–£30,000 depending on scope.
Deep Dive (2–3 weeks)
Everything above plus: performance testing, security review, data architecture assessment, competitive technical benchmarking. For larger or more complex targets. Fixed price: £25,000–£45,000.
Retainer (ongoing)
On-call technical advisor for your deal flow. I review pitch decks for technical red flags, join management presentations, and provide rapid preliminary assessments before committing to full DD. £5,000–£8,000/month.
Who This Is For
- Mid-market PE firms with fintech, insurtech, or enterprise software portfolio focus
- VC firms doing later-stage due diligence (Series B+) on technology companies
- Corporate development teams at insurers or banks evaluating acquisition targets
- PE operating partners who need on-call technical advisors for deal flow
- Founders preparing for exit who want to identify and fix technical risks before buyers find them
What You Get
| Deliverable | Detail |
|---|---|
| Architecture assessment | Deep-dive review of system architecture, design patterns, scalability characteristics, and infrastructure — with honest risk ratings |
| Code quality audit | Codebase analysis covering test coverage, dependency health, security posture, and maintainability metrics |
| Technical debt quantification | Itemized technical debt register with estimated remediation costs and business impact of deferral |
| Team & process review | Engineering team structure, development practices, CI/CD maturity, and incident response capability assessment |
| Risk report | Executive-ready summary of technical risks, red flags, and deal implications — in business language, not engineer-speak |
| Remediation roadmap | Post-acquisition plan for addressing identified risks, with effort sizing and priority sequencing |
Domain Expertise Where It Counts
If your target is in fintech, insurtech, payments, or enterprise software built on .NET/Azure — I bring both technical assessment capability and domain understanding. I won't just tell you the code is good or bad. I'll tell you whether the architecture can support the business plan you're underwriting.
Technical truth, delivered fast, in language investors understand.