UK FinTech
Financial Technology, 65 employees, 9 weeks
Overview
A fast-growing UK FinTech company processing payments for SME merchants. Series A funded, 65 employees, SaaS platform handling sensitive financial data. Their growth was being constrained by a lack of ISO 27001 certification, enterprise prospects were declining to proceed past the security questionnaire stage.
The Challenge
The company was losing two to three enterprise deals per quarter specifically because they could not demonstrate ISO 27001 certification. Prospects in financial services and insurance required it as a non-negotiable procurement condition.
The security team was spending over forty hours per month answering security questionnaires with custom narrative responses. Without a formal ISMS, every questionnaire required bespoke answers that consumed engineering and compliance resources.
Cyber insurance premiums were significantly higher than certified competitors, eroding margins. The absence of certification was also flagged during their Series B due diligence preparation.
Our Solution
We conducted a comprehensive gap analysis in week one, mapping the company's existing security controls against ISO 27001 requirements. The analysis revealed strong technical controls but significant gaps in documentation, governance, and formal risk management.
Over weeks two through five, we built the complete ISMS documentation suite, thirty-two policies, a risk register with one hundred and fifty entries, the Statement of Applicability covering all ninety-three Annex A controls, and supporting procedures.
Weeks six through eight focused on controls implementation and evidence gathering. We worked with their engineering team to formalise access control procedures, implement monitoring, and establish incident response processes.
The internal audit in week nine identified three minor non-conformities, all of which were closed within forty-eight hours. The Stage 1 and Stage 2 external audits followed immediately, resulting in certification with zero major findings.
“We went from losing enterprise deals to closing them. The ROI on ISO 27001 was measurable within sixty days of certification. Pixelette Certified made a process we expected to take six months happen in nine weeks.”
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UK FinTech Company
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