Reputational due diligence, weighed against the record
Reputational due diligence tells you what a company or person is known for, and whether it is true. Sapiensu reads the press against the statutory and court record, so an allegation is weighed rather than repeated.
Why reputation is a deal risk
When you invest in, acquire or partner with a business, its reputation becomes partly yours. Investors, regulators, customers and the press will judge you by who you chose to stand next to. A problem found after the deal costs more than one found before it.
Adverse media is a starting point
Searching the press for negative coverage is where reputational diligence starts, not where it ends. A story can be wrong, stale, about someone else with the same name, or the first public sign of something far larger.
Sapiensu checks each story against the record: the court case it mentions, the regulatory order it describes, the company it names. What it finds is graded, so you can see which allegations the record bears out and which rest on a single report.
How each finding is graded
Every finding carries one of four confidence levels, defined the same way every time.
- Confirmed
- Independently established: we hold the official record itself (a court order, a statutory filing), or two records that do not depend on one another agree. The highest confidence.
- Corroborated
- Two or more separate sources that do not depend on one another report the same thing, though we do not hold the primary document itself. Strong evidence.
- Reported
- One reputable secondary source reports it, such as a named news outlet or a court cause list, and no independent record confirms it yet. Treat with some caution.
- Unverified
- Not yet substantiated. We flag it in line and hold its severity at Medium until a second source confirms it.
Watching reputation after the deal
Many monitoring tools send alerts without context. Sapiensu watches the people and entities in an investigation against its baseline, and when something new appears it tells you what changed and what it means for you.
Who it is for
- PE and VC firms
- Investment teams preparing a deal for committee, who need to know what could go wrong with a target and to keep watching it after the deal.
- M&A law firms
- Transaction, disputes and regulatory lawyers doing legal diligence on a counterparty: litigation, charges, regulatory action and beneficial ownership.
- Corporations and enterprises
- Corporate development, compliance, risk and procurement teams tracking targets and screening vendors and partners at volume.
Questions
What is the difference between reputational and integrity due diligence?
Reputational due diligence asks what a business or person is known for and whether it is true. Integrity due diligence asks the wider question of whether you can trust them, from ownership, conduct and connections as well as reputation. They draw on the same records.
Can I see Sapiensu in action?
Yes. Sapiensu is available to demo. Request one below and we will reach out to schedule it.