Clients & Case Studies

Due Diligence Validates Growth Potential For SaaS-Based Technology Platform

A fast-paced due diligence revealed opportunities for tactical value creation by HGGC with Aceable, an online education platform with the potential to expand.

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HGGC Uses Due Diligence To Uncover Opportunity With Aceable

Aceable knew its proprietary EdTech platform, a learning management system for online driving and real estate courses, could do more — but how much? Private Equity firm HGGC partnered with PIP on an IT due diligence to find out. By pursuing a value-driven approach to IT due diligence, HGGC and Aceable identified opportunities to expand the company’s proprietary EdTech platform.

Industry: Technology
Service: IT Due Diligence

The Challenge

HGGC needed to understand the scalability of Aceable’s platform to support future growth.

The Solution

A growth-first due diligence evaluation of Aceable’s platform helped HGGC understand key strengths and opportunities for growth potential, as well as identified risks.

The Results

The discovery validated Aceable’s ability to go to the next level, supporting a future acquisition strategy with actionable intelligence for the value creation roadmap.
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“Technical due diligence requires smart people giving their honest opinion. PIP built immediate trust with their in-depth vertical expertise and delivered on every step of our IT due diligence process.”

Chris Schultze

Vice President | HGGC

Week Timeline For IT Due Diligence Project

Stakeholder Interviews Conducted In 9 Days

Key Strengths and Value Creation Opportunities Identified

The Question: How Far Will Aceable Scale?

Identifying red flags is central to IT due diligence, yet in the context of today’s digitally transformed world Private Equity firms and portfolio companies need to take due diligence a step further — to identify opportunities for technology-driven value creation. This was exactly the goal behind HGGC’s due diligence project. HGGC and Aceable both realized the platform, while already successful, held far greater potential. With the commitment to uncovering value, PIP was an obvious choice to perform the due diligence of Aceable’s online educational platform. It was this question — how far the platform could scale — that drove the value creation evaluation through due diligence by HGGC and Aceable.

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“PIP gained trust with Aceable instantly, bringing in incredible vertical insights. The tech lead on our project had a background in the online education industry and spoke the language Aceable did. That combination of industry expertise and technical knowledge kick-started the project and delivered an IT diligence report we could trust.”

Chris Schultze

Vice President | HGGC

Defining A Customized Due Diligence Scope

Moving at the speed of Private Equity, PIP launched an IT due diligence to identify any potential red flags, and, more importantly, opportunities.

Core Diligence

Working closely with Aceable and HGGC, PIP surveyed the business applications, IT organization, governance, and IT infrastructure.

Proprietary Application Discovery

PIP’s diligence team took a deep dive into Aceable’s proprietary application to assess functionality, current capabilities, scalability, growth trajectory potential, and investment requirements.

Stakeholder Interviews

Key to uncovering opportunities for HGGC and Aceable were the 14 stakeholder interviews, which helped identify IT organizational needs.

“PIP’s ability to synthesize all of the tech-based information they gathered and summarize it in a way that speaks the language of Private Equity was an asset. It helped us rapidly assess our next steps. The details, the data — it was there, and we were able to use the Due Diligence Executive Summary Presentation in our Investment Committee.”

Chris Schultze

Vice President | HGGC

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Rapid Value Creation Revealed With Due Diligence Insights

In one brief, executive summary presentation, PIP laid out a clear assessment of Aceable’s platform — and how the organization’s creation of custom-written, proprietary systems and implementation of commercial applications differentiated both the product and Aceable’s growth potential. After examining the proprietary applications, business applications, IT organization, technical infrastructure, and security posture, PIP confirmed what both HGGC and Aceable hoped: Aceable was ready for scale.

Actionable Intelligence & Insights On Value Creation

Uncovering potential is key to building business momentum that drives value creation. That’s why PIP’s due diligences align the technology assessment to actionable next-steps: with the summary and recommendations in hand, HGGC and Aceable were ready to build a value creation roadmap. By providing real-cost estimates and defined recommendations, PIP makes it easy to make those decisions rapidly — and helps to implement those next steps at speed using the knowledge uncovered during discovery with Technology Implementation.

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Additional Resources

A Transformed Approach to IT Due Diligence

Find out how PE firms are utilizing technical diligence to uncover value-creation opportunities, and the top five questions to ask when selecting your next diligence partner.

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