Technical Due Diligence Before a UAE Seed Round: The Checklist for Your MVP

What technical due diligence means at seed

Technical due diligence is a review of your product's code, accounts, security and ownership. The investor runs it before signing. Ask early who will run the review and what format they want. At seed, nobody expects perfect architecture. For the wider view of what investors look for before this stage, read how to raise pre-seed funding with an MVP. The reviewer wants to know three things:

• The company that is raising actually owns what it sells.
• The product won't leak data or money when users arrive.
• The next engineer can work on it without starting over.

The seed due diligence checklist at a glance

For each area, here is what the reviewer asks and what you hand over.

• Code. What the reviewer asks: where is the code, and who controls it? What you hand over: read access to the repo on the company GitHub.
• IP. What the reviewer asks: did everyone who built it sign it over? What you hand over: signed IP assignments from every contributor.
• Accounts. What the reviewer asks: who owns each service the app runs on? What you hand over: a list of accounts, each one with its owner.
• Security. What the reviewer asks: can one user see another user's data? What you hand over: a short note on auth, roles and data access rules.
• Payments. What the reviewer asks: can someone change a price or skip paying? What you hand over: how payments are wired, and where they are checked.
• Personal data. What the reviewer asks: what do you store, and where? What you hand over: a list of the data you collect and where it is hosted.
• Handover. What the reviewer asks: can a new engineer run it? What you hand over: a README with setup steps and an example config file.

1. Code: on the company's GitHub

The reviewer will ask for access to the repository. It should sit in a GitHub organisation owned by your company. It should not sit on a freelancer's personal account or an agency's workspace. If the repo isn't yours yet, move it before the round. Ask for the full history to come with it, not a zip file of the latest version.

2. IP: signed over to the entity that is raising

Every person who wrote code or made designs needs to have assigned that work to your company. That includes an agency, a freelancer, a cofounder who joined later and a friend who "just helped with the backend". Your lawyer writes or checks these documents. The reviewer will ask to see them.

3. Accounts: every key held by the company

This item is easy to miss. Each account should be owned by a company email address, with at least two admins. If a former developer is the only admin, fix that now. Make a list of every service the product depends on, and check who owns each one:

• GitHub organisation
• Hosting and cloud accounts
• Database provider
• Domain name and DNS
• App Store Connect and Google Play Console
• Stripe or your payment provider
• Email sending service and analytics

4. Security: who can see what

The reviewer will try to answer one question: can a logged in user reach data that isn't theirs? They look at how users sign in, how roles work, how access rules are enforced on the database, and whether secret keys are kept out of the code.

5. Payments: checked on the server

If your app charges money, the reviewer checks where prices and payment results are confirmed. The server should decide what a user paid for, not the browser or the phone. They also check that only the right people can reach the payment provider's dashboard.

6. Personal data: what you keep and where

Write one page on what you collect (emails, phone numbers, location, documents), where it is stored, and who can access it. If you handle health, financial or identity data, ask your lawyer which rules apply in the countries where your users live, before the reviewer does.

7. Handover: can someone else run it

A new engineer should be able to clone the repo, follow the README and run the app. If only one person knows how to deploy, the reviewer will note it as a risk. Want to know where your MVP stands on this list before an investor asks? Book a call and walk us through it.

What to put in the technical folder of your data room

Reviewers move faster when everything sits in one place. The last item matters. An honest list of known issues reads better than a reviewer finding them on their own. Put these in a single folder:

• 1. Link to the repo, with read access ready to grant.
• 2. Signed IP assignments for every contributor.
• 3. The account list, with owners and admins.
• 4. A one page architecture note: what the app runs on, where data lives, how it is deployed.
• 5. The security and payments notes from the checklist above.
• 6. The data list.
• 7. Links to the live product: the web app, a TestFlight invite, the store listings.
• 8. A short list of known issues and what you plan to fix after the round.

If your prototype was built with AI tools

A prototype built with AI tools can carry you through early meetings. Before a technical review, check it for three gaps first: access rules missing on the database, secret keys in the code, and payments confirmed in the browser. You don't have to throw the prototype away. Our AI prototype to production service reviews auth, authorization, secrets, data access, payments and deploy, then tells you what to harden and what to rebuild. You keep the code.

How to get ready in the weeks before the round

Don't wait for the term sheet to start. More on raising with a product in our investor and fundraising articles. Work through the checklist in this order:

• 1. Ownership first. Move the repo to the company GitHub and collect signed IP assignments. These take the longest because they depend on other people.
• 2. Accounts next. Build the account list and move every service to company emails.
• 3. Security and payments. Fix anything a user could abuse. Get an engineer to check it if you aren't technical.
• 4. Write the notes. Architecture, data, known issues. Short documents beat long ones.
• 5. Test the handover. Ask an engineer who has never seen the code to run it from the README.

How BuildMVPFast builds with the review in mind

BuildMVPFast is based in Dubai, with offices in London and New York. We build MVPs for the web, iOS and Android. See the apps we have already shipped on our projects page. Here is what you get:

• Fixed at $3,460. Fixed quote given before we start.
• Delivered in about 20 days.
• Progress shown every week. You see the app working as it is built.
• Design included.
• Code 100% yours, on your GitHub.
• 2 weeks of fixes after launch.

What is technical due diligence in a seed round?

It is a review of your product's code, accounts, security and ownership, run for the investor before they sign. At seed it focuses on ownership, data safety and whether another engineer can take over the code.

Who does the technical review for a seed investor?

Ask your lead investor early who will run the review and what format they want. The answer tells you how to prepare your technical folder and how much detail to put in it.

Can an AI built MVP pass technical due diligence?

Yes, if the gaps are fixed first. Check access rules, secret keys and payments before the round, not during it.

What if a freelancer still owns my repo or accounts?

Get the repo moved to your company GitHub, the accounts moved to company emails and the IP assignment signed before you start talking to investors. Expect the reviewer to ask about each one. Want an MVP that is ready for the reviewer from day one? Book a call.