Fixed-price, time-boxed technical assessments run by senior engineers with no prior context and no product bias. We see what familiarity has made invisible.

Internal teams normalise what they live with. Architecture that worked at ten thousand users shows stress at a hundred thousand. A deployment pipeline that felt fast two years ago now costs two days per release. Technical debt accumulates without a line in the budget that says so.

The issues compound quietly until a performance incident, a security event, or an investor's due diligence question surfaces them at the worst possible moment.

We drive the process end to end. Access is required: codebase, infrastructure configuration, monitoring dashboards, existing documentation. Most clients find the demand on their internal team amounts to a handful of hours across the full engagement - no extended workshops, no slide preparation requested.

We do not deliver slide decks that summarise slide decks.

AI-Accelerated Assessment

Where governance allows, Gradion applies AI-assisted codebase analysis to compress the assessment timeline significantly. Static analysis, dependency mapping, test coverage gaps, and architectural anti-patterns that would take weeks to surface manually are identified in days.

The result is a faster diagnostic with broader coverage - and findings that reflect the actual codebase, not the team's working assumptions about it.

How We Engage

Every engagement is fixed-price and time-boxed. We work primarily off-site, coordinating targeted interviews and repository access as needed. Findings are documented in sufficient specificity to be acted on: what the issue is, why it matters, what addressing it requires, and how it ranks against other findings.

Two deliverable layers:

Executive summary and risk heatmap - written for leadership, board, and investor audiences. Translates technical findings into a format that does not require technical literacy. One view of where risk lives and how severe it is.
Technical appendix - the depth engineering teams need to implement. Specific findings, root causes, prioritised remediation paths, and effort estimates.

Audit Products

For Operating Companies

Tech Health Check	Assess your technology landscape against your business strategy. Architecture, infrastructure, delivery pipeline, team capability, and technical debt - mapped to where your business is heading, not where it has been.	1–2 weeks · Deliverable: Executive summary, risk heatmap, technical appendix
Rapid Scaling Audit	Is your architecture ready for growth? We stress-test platform, infrastructure, and processes to find the bottlenecks before your customers do. Designed for companies entering a growth phase, preparing for market expansion, or onboarding enterprise clients.	1–2 weeks · Deliverable: Executive summary, risk heatmap, technical appendix
Code Health Audit	A focused review of your codebase for quality, maintainability, and security risks. Clear findings, prioritised recommendations, and a remediation roadmap your engineering team can execute against immediately.	1–2 weeks · Deliverable: Code quality report, dependency risk map, technical appendix
Cybersecurity Safety Check	A focused review of your security posture - vulnerabilities, access controls, and compliance gaps. Designed to surface exposure before it becomes an incident and to give leadership a clear view of residual risk.	1 week · Deliverable: Security posture report, vulnerability prioritisation, compliance gap analysis.

For Investors & Acquirers

Technical Due Diligence	Entry-level engagement for time-pressured decisions. We review available technical documentation, conduct targeted interviews with key engineering contacts, and deliver a written report covering material risks, critical unknowns, and the questions that should be resolved before proceeding. Priced to fit early-stage deal economics.	3–5 days
Full Technology Audit (Portfolio & Acquisition)	A comprehensive assessment for PE firms, corporate acquirers, and holding companies. Covers architecture, infrastructure, team capability, security posture, and technical debt across single assets or multi-brand portfolios. Includes the risk heatmap deliverable designed for investment committee and board review.	1–3 weeks per asset

Proof in Production

20-Brand PE Portfolio - Audited in 2 Weeks A German private equity firm engaged Gradion to conduct full-stack technical audits across a 20-brand portfolio. Each audit produced asset-specific findings to prioritise remediation spend. The engagement demonstrated that portfolio-wide technical visibility is achievable on deal timelines, not consulting timelines.

Shopware - Assessment to Team Design Gradion assessed Shopware's existing product capability and conducted a structured gap analysis before any hiring decisions were made. The result was a 21-engineer AI product team designed to match the actual product requirement - not a headcount number. The team delivered a sustained 40% reduction in cost of goods sold.

Swiss Banking Technology Provider - 300+ Application Estate Architecture review across 300+ core banking applications before committing to a multi-year cloud migration. The audit defined a hybrid roadmap spanning five to seven years, designed to satisfy FINMA requirements. Internal teams were trained and certified so the organisation could operate independently after the roadmap was in place.

European Fintech - Pre-exit Technical Transformation A fintech processing billions annually engaged Gradion ahead of a strategic exit. The mandate: bring the platform's architecture and developer experience to investor standard before the process began. The technical transformation made the platform investable on the timeline the founders needed.

All figures are from live engagements. Client references available under NDA.

An Independent Read on Where Your Systems Stand - Before the Market Gives You One.