Investment banks

Investment banking teams often rely on workflows that appear defined on paper but vary in practice across products, regions, stakeholders, and exception paths. Sapeum helps teams capture how work actually happens across reviews, approvals, handoffs, and decision points so they can establish a credible current-state baseline, compare future-state changes, and improve critical workflows with more confidence.

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Challenges

Where investment banking teams get stuck

Approval paths vary in practice

Review and approval paths often differ by deal type, team, region, or stakeholder, making it hard to create a shared view of the real process.

Cross-functional handoffs create friction

Coverage, product, legal, compliance, and operations teams may each own part of the process, but the handoffs between them are often unclear or inconsistent.

Exceptions expose unclear ownership

When escalations, edge cases, or last-minute changes occur, teams can struggle to identify who decides what and how work should move forward.

No trustworthy current-state baseline

Process redesign and standardization efforts stall when teams cannot agree on how work actually happens today.

How it works

Common use cases

  1. 1

    Map deal review and approval workflows

    Capture how review and approval workflows differ across products, regions, or transaction types.

  2. 2

    Document committee, legal, compliance, and operations handoffs

    Show how work moves across critical stakeholders during transactions and related review processes.

  3. 3

    Establish a baseline before redesign or standardization

    Create a trusted current-state view before making operating model or governance changes.

  4. 4

    Compare current and proposed workflows

    Evaluate future-state changes against real process complexity rather than relying on assumptions.

LIVE
Investment Committee Deal Pipeline · 11:47
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[I.2] Log outcome anddrop deal[P] Decline deal[H] Pass at prescreen[S] Final sign-off[C] Quick screenagainst mandate[K] Deal ops team runspipeline infrastructure[V] Pipeline reporting[A] Deal sources[B] Log every look in Deal CRM[I] Submit indicative offer[M] Investmentcommittee debatesand decides[Q] Final negotiation anddefinitive docs[U] Close and transition to portfolio[I.1] Selected to moveforward?[D] Deal does not fitmandate[F] Early IC prescreen[L] Prepare investmentmemo[J] Bring in real data[N] Approve deal[E] Assign deal team[G] Pipeline reviewprescreen[T] Sign and fund[R] Confirm financing andstructure[O] Approve withconditions[B.1] Tag deal record[B.2] Dedupe and checkprior history[U.2] Move deal data intoportfolio system[U.1] Hand off to portfoliomonitoring[F.1] Build one-pager[F.2] Build quick model[J.5] Bring in third-partyadvisors[J.1] Collect first-passmaterials[J.4] Ingest full data room[J.3] Run structured diligence[J.2] Gather external data[J.3.1] Financial diligence[J.3.2] Commercialdiligence[J.3.3] Legal diligence[J.3.4] Tax diligenceNot selectedDeclinePassGreen lightDoes not fitmandateSelectedSend back formore workApproveFits mandateApprove withconditionsDescriptionIf the team is not selected,they log the outcome andstop work on the deal.They still keep the record.DescriptionThe investment committeedeclines the deal.DescriptionThe deal does not get agreen light at theprescreen gate.DescriptionThere is a final sign-offbefore signing andfunding.DescriptionAfter the deal is logged anddeduped, the team does a quickscreen against the mandate.They assess:SizeSectorGeographyReturn profileMost deals die right here, andthat's fine.DescriptionThe client's team runs theinfrastructure that feedsthe investment committee.This includes theunderlying questions ofhow they are looking ateach deal, where theinformation lives, andwhat data they bring inand when.At the heavier diligencestage, the infrastructurejob here is diligencetracking.This means centralizing:Every workstreamEvery findingEvery open itemAll documents and notesThe reason is that therecan be a dozen peopleacross the firm and outsideit all generatinginformation at once.Today, this pipelineinfrastructure lives acrossthe CRM, data rooms,spreadsheets, and a lot ofemail, so keeping it allconnected is the constantchallenge.ExecutorsDeal ops teamProblemsIf information is scatteredacross email and personalfolders, the memo at theend is going to miss things.A deal can die and sixmonths of insight candisappear because it livedin someone's inbox.OpportunitiesThere is real opportunity inkeeping the pipelineconnected across the CRM,data rooms, spreadsheets,and email.SystemsDeal CRMData roomsSpreadsheetsEmailDescriptionThis closes the loopthrough pipeline reporting.The team looks at:How many deals theysawWhat convertedPerformance by sourceWin-lossWhich screens areworkingThis tells them whichsources actually producedeals worth doing.DescriptionDeals come in frommultiple sources:Bankers andintermediariesProprietary outreachInboundExisting relationshipsDescriptionThe moment a deal shows up, it goes into the system at first touch.This is how the team knows what it has seen. Every single look is logged, including theones they may pass on quickly, because the log itself is the asset.This step includes tagging the deal, checking for duplicates / prior history, and logging whythey passed because that reason is data too.The client emphasized that they keep the whole history so that the next time the samecompany or sector comes around, the team starts ahead.SystemsDeal CRMDescriptionIf the deal gets a go atpipeline review, the teamputs in an indicative offer— a non-binding bid — toget into the process.DescriptionThe investment committeedebates the investment memo anddecides the outcome.Possible outcomes are:ApproveApprove with conditionsDeclineSend back for more workExecutorsInvestment committeeDescriptionIf the deal is approved, theteam moves into finalnegotiation and definitivedocuments.DescriptionAfter signing and funding, the deal closes and transitions into portfolio monitoring.DescriptionAfter the indicative offer, the teamlearns whether it was selected tomove forward in the process.DescriptionThe deal is screened out atthe mandate check stage.DescriptionAt the right stage, the IC gets involved early through a prescreen.This is meant to give an early read before anyone sinks weeks into the deal.DescriptionThe team synthesizes alldiligence into onedocument.The investment memocovers:The thesisThe risksThe returnsThe structureThis document is whatgoes to the investmentcommittee.DescriptionOnce a deal team is assigned, this is when the team starts bringing in real data.The principle they follow is that they bring in data in proportion to the stage.All of the materials and data go into the deal folder so everything is in one place.If the team gets into the process, this stage gets heavy. This is where the real volume of data lands.DescriptionThe investment committeeapproves the deal.DescriptionFor deals that survive themandate screen, the teamassigns a deal team:A leadAn analystDescriptionThe team brings the one-pager andquick model to a pipeline review.At this stage, the IC gives an earlyread. This is a gate in the process.ExecutorsInvestment committeeThe teamDescriptionAfter final sign-off, the dealis signed and funded.DescriptionThe team confirms thefinancing and structure.DescriptionThe investment committeeapproves the deal withconditions.DescriptionOnce the deal is in thesystem, the team tags itwith:SectorGeographySourceSponsorSystemsDeal CRMDescriptionThe team dedupes the dealand checks whether theyhave seen the companybefore.This includes pulling:The old fileThe old modelWhy they passedThe goal is to recover priorhistory so the team doesnot start from a blankpage.ProblemsThis is a step people skipand then regret. Prior workis gold, and it is the thingthat most often gets lost.SystemsDeal CRMDescriptionThe deal data moves intothe portfolio system.SystemsPortfolio systemDescriptionAfter close, the deal ishanded off to portfoliomonitoring.The handoff includes:The modelThe memoThe key termsThis is so the peoplemanaging the asset for thenext several years are notstarting cold.DescriptionThe team builds aone-pager for theprescreen.ExecutorsThe teamDescriptionThe team builds a quickmodel for the prescreen.ExecutorsThe teamDescriptionAt this stage, the teambrings in third-partyadvisors.DescriptionThe team gathers earlycompany materials,including:The teaserThe CIM, if there is oneWhatever the companyis willing to share earlyDescriptionThe team ingests the fulldata room. This is wherethe real volume of datalands.DescriptionOnce the team gets into the process, they kick off structured diligence.DescriptionAlongside thecompany-providedmaterials, the team bringsin external information,including:Market dataComparablesAny prior memos theyhave written on similarbusinessesThey use judgment basedon stage: they do not pull afull third-party marketstudy on a deal they haveonly spent 20 minutes on.The goal is the right datafor the stage.DescriptionFinancial diligenceworkstream.DescriptionCommercial diligenceworkstream.DescriptionLegal diligenceworkstream.DescriptionTax diligence workstream.
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SME: "…unless it's flagged, then it goes through the exception path first."

Resources

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Capabilities

Why Sapeum fits investment banking process work

Capture current-state workflows in detail

Document step-level sequencing, owners, handoffs, decision points, review layers, and exception paths so the workflow reflects operational reality rather than an idealized diagram.

Compare current and future states

Give teams a clearer way to evaluate proposed process changes against the existing workflow before standardization or governance decisions are made.

Maintain version history and attributable change

Preserve how important workflows evolve over time so teams can review controlled updates with greater clarity and accountability.

Surface workflow-aware improvement opportunities

Highlight bottlenecks, redundant reviews, unclear ownership, and recurring handoff friction to support better process conversations.

Benefits

What this helps teams do

Create a more credible operating baseline

Align stakeholders around how key workflows actually run today before redesign work begins.

Improve cross-functional process clarity

Make ownership, review paths, and handoffs easier to understand across complex banking workflows.

Support better-controlled change

Use clearer current-state visibility and versioned workflow history to guide process updates more confidently.

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