Success Stories / Sell-Side Diligence for Education Technology

Preparing a PE-backed Ed Tech Company for Sale

Transaction Advisory

The client was an early-childhood education technology company. Leadership and the PE sponsor sought to address technology hurdles and position the technology for a sale by engaging Cuesta for a sell-side technology diligence.

Technology Diligence
Sell-Side Product Material
Real-time technology Assessment

Challenges

The Company began in 1978 as a traditional publisher of curriculum materials for districts & teachers and developed its first online assessment platform in 2010
Multiple digital products were rapidly developed or acquired from 2017-20, significantly expanding the Company’s potential market and technology footprint
New Leadership was faced with a complex process of rationalizing the product suite and retiring technical debt
Client sought to develop a sales enablement process to address rapidly changing customer profiles and leverage available data/existing business systems

Solutions

Alongside Client and PE leadership, Cuesta developed a thorough sell-side IT diligence deck for inclusion in the seller’s investment bank’s Confidential Information Memorandum to ease the burden of diligence for potential buyers and tell a thoughtful story around the company’s technology properties, digital journey and competent leadership team
Cuesta evaluated each product’s history, the product roadmap and clearly defined the product rationalization story
Cuesta built a list of potential issues that may arise in buy-side probing, providing guidance on remediation and suggested responses to management

Transaction Advisory

Diligence & Investment Strategy for PE-Backed Investment Software

The Private Equity group (PE) sought to purchase a majority stake in a web-based investment management platform, but needed to first understand the scalability of its customer-facing technology and internal systems.

Transaction Advisory

Sell-Side Diligence for Education Technology