Creating value at every step of the investment cycle
We support Private Equity clients with advisory services, including Digital, Date and Tech Due Diligence and Digital Strategy creation to assess risk and opportunities in target investments. Our 150+ delivery teams also help portfolio companies implement their digital transformation strategy at pace, realise the vision of the IM and maximise exit value.
Creating value for PE and portfolio companies.
PE Services
Pre-deal digital, data & tech diligence
We created our Digital Due Diligence service to arm our PE clients with insight, expertise and guidance so they can invest with confidence. We discovered that while digitisation is now an essential part of value creation, the investors behind our client companies felt ill-equipped to evaluate opportunities, question management teams and validate IMs through a technology lens. With twenty years’ experience of digitally transforming leading companies, we designed our unique service to satisfy this unmet need and give our PE clients the intelligence and insight to make confident investment decisions. Typical duration: 3-4 weeks.
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Post-deal Digital Assessment
If a deal has accelerated quickly but you still have questions about the tech stack and team capabilities, or need more certainty about the digital ambitions and opportunities in your latest portfolio company - we bring the rigour and strategic thinking behind our digital due diligence assignments into our post-deal Digital Assessments. This service provides you with more insight and certainty about where the business is at from a digital perspective.
Digital Strategies to support VCPs
We work with PE houses and portfolio management teams to create transformational Digital Strategies as part of wider Value Creation Plans. We have a two-phase approach: the initial 'Assess' stage evaluates your current digital maturity, capabilities and initiatives as well as helps our expert team understand exactly where you want to be. In the 'Create' phase that follows, we build an actionable and costed 24-36 month Digital Strategy. Equator can also assist in the delivery when required.
Delivering digital transformation strategies
Equator has delivered digital transformation projects for PE-backed businesses over the last 20 years. Your portfolio companies may have stretched management and operational teams that need to be up-skilled and the pace of change ramped-up. Our 180+ digital experts and best-practice development processes support you from the get-go to create integrated transformation throughout an organisation. We align operational effectiveness with customer experiences across the full customer lifecycle.
Pre-sale Vendor Due Diligence
With digital routes to market, digital innovation and digitisation potential now featuring on more and more investor memorandums, we provide pre-sale vendor Due Diligence to support your exit process. Typically, we will assess digital marketing effectiveness, digital team capabilities, tech stack architecture and infrastructure as well as cybersecurity and Data Protection - ensuring that the digital estate is in good order for your prospective buyers.
Latest Advisory Engagements
News
Digital Strategy & Roadmap
Empowering a Recruitment Business for M&A and Growth
Key Findings from Our Digital Diagnostic & Strategy Project.
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Digital due diligence
Assessing a Code-Free Promotional Website Acquisition
Key Takeaways from Our Digital Due Diligence.
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Technology Due Diligence
Accelerated Technology Due Diligence Report for a Product Development Provider
We recently completed a red flag technology due diligence report for a mid-market private equity firm in the UK, evaluating a potential investment in a product development provider.
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Technology & Data Due Diligence
Evaluating a Healthcare Compliance Software Platform
Key Insights from Our Technology Due Diligence.
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Technology & Data Due Diligence
Assessing a Product Impact Scoring Platform
Scalability and Technology Insights from Our Due Diligence.
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Technology Due Diligence
Vendor Diligence for a Utilities Platform
The Power of Expert Teams.
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Technology & Data Due Diligence
Technology & Data Due Diligence for an African Supermarket Chain
Identifying Key Factors for Success.
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Technology & Data Due Diligence
Technology Due Diligence for a Fire Suppression Business
Assessing Scalability and Growth Potential.
Read more20 years of digital transformation expertise
Sector Expertise
Healthcare
Digital consultancy and transformation services for healthcare service providers, medical supplies business, health-tech and supply chain partners.
B2B
A space that's ripe for disruption. Transforming brands and user experience for professional services, outsourced solutions and B2B supplies and equipment suppliers.
Tech
We love technology. Our focus for tech businesses is in marketing and brand development - this is where we maximise growth and increase value most.
Energy & Utilities
Transforming the big six brands and supported the growth of PE-backed businesses. We have helped our clients generate over 2 million energy consumers - no other consultancy knows this sector better.
Retail & Consumer
Creating stand-out brands and developing marketing campaigns that cut through the noise. We have provided fully integrated E-commerce and fulfilment solutions and invaluable digital support for B2C-focussed portfolio companies.
Insurance
We've built brand propositions for global players, created award-winning online user experiences and created huge value for dozens of life, general and health insurance providers.
Financial services
From PE-backed Shawbrook Bank to Embark - we have launched powerful disruptors in the fast-changing banking & wealth landscape.
Property
The digital landscape is transforming the property sector. With more consumers relying on smart devices to support their domestic life, the demand for digitally-enabled brands is growing exponentially.
Travel & Leisure
Our leisure time and our ability to explore have become more precious than ever. Our expertise ranges from global brands like Rocco Forte and IHG to KSL's expanding hotel portfolio. We are travel sector experts.
Our Private Equity Credentials
Download our full private equity credentials and see how we can transform your brand.
Maximise value creation and growth across your portfolio companies.
Meeting portfolio business challenges
Digital Assessments
Understanding your digital opportunities.
The first step in most digital transformation programmes is to understand precisely where the portfolio business is today – what products and proposition look like, how they fit together and what the current digital tools consist of. We’ll establish what your customers think and need and where their (and your) pain points are across the various journeys and touch-points.
Strategy & Consulting
Creating transformational digital strategies
Having a clear digital strategy and roadmap written down tends to energise an organisation, fosters a culture of change, and creates a framework against which to evaluate investment of effort. It should be a living piece that supports your Value Creation Plan and reacts to business priorities (and pace) to help shape the future team make-up and capabilities.
Digital Transformation
Ramping up digital delivery and capability
Determining the barriers to transformation, developing strategies to solve them, delivering solutions for evolved operational and sales performance. Websites, apps, SaaS solutions, reporting and automation. Our digital experts and delivery teams are here to help portfolio businesses ramp-up the delivery of digital programmes, initiatives and tools.
Transforming experiences.
Case Studies
We support PE-backed portfolio businesses with digital transformation services. From simple website upgrades to digitising entire business processes. Our approach helps increase sales, cut costs and leverage untapped value.
Shift to e-commerce, lower costs and increased share of wallet.
Limerston Capital - Tili
We reimagined our client's business - turning a point of pain into a positive opportunity. Today, Tili is a digital platform on which 20,000 people manage their home moves proactively every month with over 80% platform engagement and 1 in 5 users buying more than one product.
KSL Capital
Village Hotels
Over nearly fifteen years we’ve been consistently proactive and imaginative in our contribution to the growing business, addressing challenges and exploiting opportunities.
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Pollen Street Capital and BC Partners
Shawbrook Bank
Applying our full-service offering, we helped define a unique position and personality for this small, specialist independent bank, transforming the brand and its communications strategy.
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KSL Capital
Malmaison
We’ve worked with stylish hotel brand Malmaison for over seven years, using integration to combat the rise of online travel agents and building a website that genuinely reflects the brand.
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EMK Capital
Digital Due Diligence
We carried out a Digital Due Diligence on a New York based tech company for partners at EMK Capital. Diligence was carried out with remote systems access, video interviews and desk research.
Cairngorm Capital
Digitising healthcare logistics
Removing friction, reducing cost, resolving data limitations and facilitating entry into adjacent sectors and accessing more of the ‘customer purse’.
Limerston Capital
Digital Transformation in HR
Replacing legacy systems with a fit-for-purpose ‘Workflow Engine’ and future-proofed platforms for an outsourced HR business based in the UK.
CollectorIQ
A private viewing for Equator
We reviewed a specialist fine art platform for our NYC-based client, creating value and minimising risk for both users and administrators.
Learn moreWhat we think.
Thought leadership
Q4 Newsletter 2021
PE Sector Highlights from Q4 2021
After a busy January, tech capability, digital transformation, and online strategies remain front-of-mind for our PE clients looking to build value quickly.
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Q2 Newsletter 2021
PE Sector Highlights from Q2 2021
The opening up of hospitality, holidays and a return to social life is great for us all, but with transactions continuing at pace this month, it's been all hands-on deck for the PE team at Equator.
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Q1 Newsletter 2021
4 PE Sector Highlights from Q1 2021
Our Director, Chris Gauld, shares some sector highlights from the last quarter to help bring our services to life.
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Published in Private Equity Wire, March 2021
Readying healthcare businesses for value creation
Our Director, Chris Gauld, looks at some of the recent healthcare deal trends this year.
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Private Equity Healthcare
Healthcare industry digital wellness report 20/21
With an ageing population, pandemic-weary societies, exponential growth in health & wellbeing spend and an explosion of health data, it’s little wonder that healthcare is a key trend in private equity deal origination.
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Q4 Newsletter 2020
5 key PE Industry themes and predictions for 2021
The last quarter saw new digital due diligence assignments, on-going and new large-scale digital transformation projects and our busiest quarter for strategic consultancy engagements. The most active sectors were Healthcare, Financial Services and B2B service providers.
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Private Equity Webinar - August 20, 2020
Are you, your target companies and portfolio businesses ready to take on tomorrow?
We discuss emerging themes pre-deal, post-deal and as companies get ready for exit. Hosted by Chris Gauld, digital transformation strategy advisor and award-winning entrepreneur helping high growth PE-backed businesses achieve scale and deliver diversification and digitisation.
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PE Clients
Experience
We support a range of PE houses in the UK, EU and North America