Non-market risk intelligence
Legal, regulatory and geopolitical risk.Every deal. At inception.
See what could matter, and why, before launching full diligence.
DEALSAGE screens legal, regulatory and geopolitical risk at deal inception, showing deal teams where closer attention may be warranted.
New deal
US EdTech platform
Growth investment. AI-assisted learning tools for K-12 districts.
- Target sector
- Education technology
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- Data held
- US student records
50+ Years
Combined multidisciplinary transaction experience behind the platform
Thousands
Of risk analyses performed informed by that experience
Minutes
To separate signal from noise, and return on investment
“It solves the 24 to 48-hour underwriting crunch we face on every new deal.”
Managing Director, Financial Sponsor
“I love the product. It will make me look smarter with my deal teams and make those conversations easier because the analysis is independent. It's fast and cost-effective, and lets me focus my time and judgment on the deals that really require them.”
Chief Legal Officer, Financial Sponsor
“DEALSAGE flagged things at the screening stage I wouldn't have known, even in a space I know well. I now run every deal through DEALSAGE because some apparently benign deals have hair, while others that look sensitive turn out to be benign.”
General Counsel, Financial Sponsor
The Challenge
The most consequential calls happen before you have enough information.
At the start of a transaction, there is a lot that could matter. Regulatory exposure. Litigation. Reputation. Geopolitics. Government relationships. Labor. Supply chains. Environmental issues. Policy shifts. And the issues that may matter the most may not be obvious from the deal materials.
01 · The universe of what could matter
Potential issues are everywhere. The harder question is which ones warrant attention.
02 · The current tradeoff
Bring in outside counsel and experts early
Commit time and cost before you know whether you really want to pursue the deal or whether you’ll even win it.
Make the early call with limited information
Rely on legacy heuristics and instinct, with the possibility of missing something material or giving too much weight to something that ultimately isn’t.
Both were reasonable when a better option did not exist. Both approaches are problematic today.
03 · DEALSAGE
Decision architecture at deal inception.
DEALSAGE combines technology with seasoned, multidisciplinary judgment to identify what could matter, distinguish signal from noise, and prioritize where deeper diligence is warranted.
Less noiseClearer prioritiesMore focused diligence
Deploy time, expertise and resources where they matter most.
The answer
DEALSAGE helps buy and sell-side deal teams identify material non-market risks earlier, separate real concerns from perceived ones, and pursue opportunities with greater confidence and speed.
Earlier
Surface material non-market risk in minutes, while the decision is still being made.
Clearer
Separate material concerns from risks that only appear to be.
More confident
Pursue opportunities with a clearer understanding of what actually warrants deeper diligence.
DEALSAGE runs upstream of diligence and outside advisors.
How it works
A screening layer between the deal and the decision.
01 · Screen
Start with the target
Enter a company or upload deal materials at the earliest stage of evaluation. Minutes of input, not a diligence questionnaire.
02 · Surface
Surface issues that may matter
Potential issues across the target, ownership, footprint, sector and transaction structure, evaluated together, with cascading logic.
03 · Focus
Direct attention
Understand why an issue may matter, and where internal or outside expertise may help.
How the output is framed
A map of where to look closer.
A sharper first pass and clear roadmap, not a verdict on the deal. Every finding arrives in the same five-part frame, so a team knows what to do with it.
- What surfaced
- Relevant fact or pattern
- Why it may matter
- Potential deal relevance
- What to examine
- Focused questions
- Where expertise may help
- Suggested escalation
- Supporting basis
- Evidence and sources
Built for live deal decisions
Surface on day one what might not otherwise emerge until week eight.
A US financial sponsor is investing in a US education technology business whose software helps grade-school students learn. Domestic target, domestic buyer, familiar sector.
To fill the check, the firm brings in one of its larger limited partners from the Middle East as a co-investor. Ordinary structuring.
What the deal team does not know is that the US government is acutely focused on foreign government access to US student data. Found late, that single fact can kill the deal, damage the LP relationship and create regulatory exposure.
Found early, it is a structuring question with two or three viable answers, and the same screening shows which flagged items are not actually problems.
Illustrative scenario. No client facts are used anywhere on this site.
New deal
US EdTech platform
Growth investment. AI-assisted learning tools for K-12 districts.
- Target sector
- Education technology
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- Data held
- US student records
Investment thesis
What deserves a closer look before conviction builds?
Process strategy
What may warrant attention around timing, approvals or certainty?
Priority scope
Where can internal teams or outside advisors focus most effectively?
Price and terms
What questions should inform valuation, conditions or risk allocation?
Who it's for
Built for teams making investment and M&A decisions.
From initial screening through live diligence, DEALSAGE helps teams understand non-market risk earlier and focus time and expertise where it matters.
Financial sponsors
Screen regulatory, geopolitical and other non-market risks earlier, before spending time and money on deals that you may not want or may not go anywhere.
Strategic acquirers
Pressure-test investment assumptions and surface material deal and integration issues earlier.
Institutional investors
Understand non-market exposure in a commitment or co-investment while the terms are still being set.
Law firms
Arrive at the first client conversation with the initial risk picture already assembled and prioritized.
Other transaction advisors
Give clients an early, defensible read on where deeper work is warranted, and where it is not.
Expertise and execution
DEALSAGE helps you see the deal from all the sides that matter.
Mario Mancuso
Founder & CEO
Built and led the CFIUS and national security practice at Kirkland & Ellis. Former US Under Secretary of Commerce and CFIUS decision-maker.
Louis Citron
Founder
Chief Legal Officer of NEA for 23 years, overseeing thousands of investments and liquidity events.
Global Advisory Council
The DEALSAGE Global Advisory Council brings together distinguished leaders from finance, law, government, geopolitics, and technology to help anticipate the forces reshaping global investment and M&A. Their multidisciplinary judgment informs DEALSAGE’s strategy and enterprise risk intelligence platform, making expertise once accessible only to the world’s largest and best-resourced institutions available at scale.
Ambassador John J. Sullivan
Senior Advisor, Chair of the Global Advisory Council
Former US Ambassador to Russia and Deputy Secretary of State, with four decades at the center of US foreign and national security policy.
Insights
How we read the risk landscape.
Next step
See DEALSAGE at work on a deal like yours.
See how DEALSAGE surfaces material risks, separates real concerns from perceived ones, and helps focus your diligence where it matters.