Buy-side cyber due diligence on a fintech target

The challenge

A European private equity fund was in the advanced stages of acquiring a fintech scale-up in the payments space. The target processed rapidly growing transaction volumes, but product growth had outpaced the security function, which was largely absent as a formal structure.

The deal team needed to understand, within a few weeks and without slowing the process, whether technical or compliance risks existed that could affect valuation, deal structure, or conditions precedent. The data-room window was tight and the target’s management had limited availability.

My approach

I ran a risk-focused due diligence, concentrating effort on the areas that can move value: payment architecture security, identity and access management, cardholder data exposure, and dependencies on critical third parties.

The analysis combined data-room document review, technical interviews with the engineering and security teams, and targeted checks on the external attack surface and cloud configuration. Every finding was translated into language the board could act on, separating noise from genuinely material risk.

Three exposures with potential price impact emerged, including a gap in contractual obligations toward a key infrastructure provider and technical debt in the segmentation of payment environments. I provided an exposure estimate, negotiation arguments for the deal team, and a prioritised remediation plan for the first 100 days.

The fund used the evidence to renegotiate terms and closed with a security roadmap already agreed with management, reducing uncertainty at Day 1.