Commercial due diligence for UK buyers: compare options

Compare three commercial advisers and a workflow platform

Choose an adviser when the deal decision depends on new customer, market or forecast evidence; use a workflow platform when the team can perform and challenge that analysis and mainly needs document collection and collaboration.[1][2]

Lighthouse Advisory Partners

• Engagement and fit: Partner-led technology M&A support for private-equity funds, corporate acquirers and corporate-development teams, covering buy-side and sell-side mandates.[6]
• Customer and market evidence: Lighthouse says it interviews customers, former customers and prospects, assessing loyalty, satisfaction, switching intent and unmet needs. Its other workstreams cover market dynamics, revenue quality, competition, AI threats and growth priorities.[6]
• Delivery and outputs: Published outputs include market and defensibility work, cohort and concentration modelling, competitor and moat analysis, an AI-threat assessment and Day One priorities. Auction work can be accelerated, although no fixed delivery timetable is stated.[6]

BDO

• Engagement and fit: Adviser-led support for buyers and sellers, using sector expertise to assess a target’s commercial health.[3]
• Customer and market evidence: The stated scope examines markets, competitors, the revenue model, peer differentiation and the challenges and opportunities within the growth plan. Customer interviews, retention analysis and concentration analysis are not confirmed.[3]
• Delivery and outputs: BDO describes the assessment areas but does not identify named deliverables or a delivery timetable on its page.[3]

eComplete

• Engagement and fit: Support for investors, founders and operators, particularly in DTC and eCommerce transactions involving fundraising, sale, expansion, stalled growth or post-acquisition integration.[5]
• Customer and market evidence: Its scope includes market sizing and trends, customer behaviour and segmentation, competitor benchmarking, channel performance, scalability and risk. Listed measures include LTV, CAC, churn and segment-level profitability.[5]
• Delivery and outputs: The provider offers a no-strings discussion but does not publish a delivery timetable or quantified service outcome.[5]

DealRoom

• Engagement and fit: A deal-workflow platform for teams collecting sensitive documents, collaborating with outside parties and examining diligence information.[2]
• Customer and market evidence: Its free checklist covers TAM, SAM and SOM, retention, churn, customer lifetime value, competitors, barriers to entry and customer-acquisition costs. The platform does not itself confirm adviser-led interviews.[2]
• Delivery and outputs: Published functions include secure and organised document collection, team collaboration, analytics examination and a downloadable CDD checklist. DealRoom’s claim that it helps close deals faster and more efficiently is not supported by independent performance evidence on its page.[2]

When to commission an adviser rather than use a platform

Commission adviser-led work when the investment decision depends on evidence that your deal team cannot produce or independently challenge. Specify customer research, market testing and forecast assumptions in the engagement. ICAEW describes CDD as an objective enquiry that challenges the business plan and financial projections.[1]

A platform-led approach is more appropriate when the deal team has the analytical capability and mainly needs secure document collection, outside-party collaboration and a structured checklist. DealRoom publishes these workflow functions, but checklist completion is not the same as independent validation.[2]

The approaches can be combined. DealRoom’s own process describes liaison with an external firm, preparation and delivery of a report, followed by the buyer’s review.[2]

If retention, churn, customer concentration, market size or competitive defensibility could materially alter valuation, specify evidence-producing work rather than checklist completion alone.[2][6] The cited providers publish no comparative study showing that adviser-led work always produces a better deal outcome.

Customer and market evidence to specify

ICAEW defines CDD as an objective enquiry that critiques and challenges commercial matters, including a target’s business plan and financial projections. It says practitioner commentary draws on customer, competitor and market evidence, together with analysis of the business model and commercial and financial performance.[1]

• Customer evidence: State whether the work includes interviews with current customers, former customers and prospects, as well as surveys. Define the required findings on loyalty, satisfaction, switching intent and unmet needs.[6]
• Revenue quality: Request retention, churn, customer lifetime value, customer-acquisition cost and customer concentration analysis where these affect forecast credibility.[2][5][6]
• Market size: Require the methodology, source data and assumptions behind total, serviceable and obtainable market estimates. DealRoom’s checklist distinguishes TAM, SAM and SOM and considers market drivers and future change.[2]
• Competitive defensibility: Specify named competitor comparisons, product or service differences, barriers to entry, differentiation and a defensibility or moat assessment.[2][3][6]
• Forecast testing: Require the customer and market findings to be connected to revenue potential, commercial risks, projections and downside scenarios.[1]
• Deliverables: Name the expected outputs, such as interview findings, a market model, cohort and concentration analysis, a competitor map, a defensibility assessment and decision-ready conclusions.[6]

Where CDD fits in an acquisition

ICAEW identifies acquisitions, mergers, capital raises, management buyouts, leveraged buyouts, refinancings, restructurings and divestments as contexts for CDD.[1] Plan the work around your own decision gates, access permissions and financing timetable. Agree which findings are needed before an offer, which before signing and which before closing; do not assume one standard sequence fits every deal.

Commercial and financial diligence have different purposes. Lighthouse describes financial due diligence as testing historical statements, revenue, costs and cash flow, while CDD examines future revenue sustainability, customer retention, market opportunity and the credibility of projections.[6]

How to assess provider claims

Use ICAEW’s publication as professional guidance rather than treating it as a statutory UK requirement.[1] Treat the BDO, DealRoom and eComplete descriptions as provider-published information, not independent evidence of outcomes.[2][3][5] The Lighthouse description is likewise provider-published information, not independent evidence of outcomes.[6]

• Methods: Ask for the proposed research design, source hierarchy, interview recruitment method and approach to conflicting evidence.
• People: Confirm the named team, individual responsibilities, sector experience and partner involvement.
• Outputs: Request anonymised examples, relevant team biographies, recent comparable mandates and reference clients.
• Claims: Give no outcome credit to performance claims that cannot be independently corroborated.

Lighthouse’s page also contains an internal scope discrepancy: its FAQ includes Voice of Customer interviews among five core workstreams, while its numbered five-workstream section includes AI Threat Analysis instead.[6] DealRoom displays 15 June 2026 as both its modification and update date; that metadata alone does not establish freshness.[2]

What to confirm with each provider

Public information does not provide enough commercial detail for a like-for-like quotation comparison.

• Lighthouse: Confirm price, final timetable, cancellation terms, contract requirements and the guaranteed number of customer interviews.[6]
• BDO: Confirm price, delivery timetable, named deliverables, scope limits, customer research, contract terms, cancellation rights and evidence for any quantified outcomes.[3]
• eComplete: Confirm price, timetable, deliverables, scope limits, contract terms, cancellation rights and evidence for any quantified outcomes.[5]
• DealRoom: Confirm paid-plan pricing, user and data limits, contract length, minimum commitment, cancellation rights and whether adviser-led work is available separately.[2]

Ask each provider to set out the total fee and charging basis, taxes and expenses, payment schedule, workstreams, interview target, milestones, team seniority, additional-fee triggers, data limits, minimum term, termination notice and refund provisions. Sales-response times, mobilisation dates and final delivery dates should be stated separately.

Compare proposals against the same investment thesis and go/no-go questions. Score evidence fit, sector fit, deliverable clarity and commercial certainty separately; a platform-led approach is suitable only where the deal team can produce and challenge the required evidence itself.[1][2]

References

1. Commercial due diligence | ICAEW (icaew.com)
2. What is Commercial Due Diligence? Types, Process & Checklist (dealroom.net, 2026)
3. Strategy & Commercial Due Diligence – BDO (bdo.global)
5. What Is Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) and How Can It Help You at Any – eComplete (ecomplete.com)
6. Understanding Commercial Due Diligence: A Comprehensive Guide – Lighthouse Advisory Partners (lighthouse-advisory.co.uk)