M&A Cybersecurity Due Diligence
Security readiness for companies being acquired — and independent security assessment for the firms acquiring them. Deep experience taking healthtech through private equity diligence.
Security Is Now a Line Item in Every Deal
Every acquisition now includes cybersecurity diligence — and for software and healthcare companies, it's often where deals slow down, reprice, or pick up escrow holdbacks. Buyers want evidence of a working security program. Sellers usually have something messier: real controls in some places, tribal knowledge in others, and policies nobody has read since they were written.
Helm works both sides of that table. We've taken healthtech companies through private equity acquisition from the inside — preparing the security program, populating the data room, and answering the diligence team's questions — and we bring that same practitioner's eye to buy-side target assessments.
The goal is the same either way: no security surprises between LOI and close.
What Slows Deals Down
- Incomplete MFA coverage discovered by the buyer's assessors
- Undisclosed or poorly documented security incidents
- Policies that don't match actual practice
- No evidence of security awareness training or testing
- HIPAA gaps and missing business associate agreements
- Unmanaged vendor and subcontractor risk
How We Engage
For founders and operators preparing for acquisition: gap assessment against real diligence checklists, prioritized remediation sequenced to your deal timeline, data-room-ready policies and evidence, and support answering buyer questionnaires.
For PE firms and strategic acquirers: independent assessment of the target's actual security posture, estimated remediation cost, inherited regulatory and breach-history risk, and a plain-language read on what should price into the deal.
After the deal: remediation of diligence findings, security program integration across entities, and the first-year roadmap — often continuing as an ongoing vCISO relationship with the platform company.
Where We Go Deepest
Healthtech Through PE Acquisition
Healthcare technology deals carry diligence weight most companies never face: HIPAA posture with real deal impact, PHI data flows that get traced end-to-end, business associate agreements the buyer inherits, and breach history with regulatory tail risk.
This is where Helm's recent, hands-on experience is — preparing healthtech security programs for private equity diligence and getting deals through without security becoming the story. We know what the assessors ask for, in what order, and what evidence satisfies them.
Preparing for a Transaction?
Whether you're two quarters from market or mid-diligence with questions piling up, a brief conversation will tell you where you stand. Confidential, practitioner-to-operator.
Schedule a Confidential ConsultationFrequently Asked Questions
When should a company start security preparation before a sale?
Earlier than you think — ideally two to four quarters before going to market. Security findings surface during diligence whether you prepared or not; the only question is whether you found them first. Gaps discovered by the buyer's diligence team become negotiating leverage against you, escrow holdbacks, or closing conditions. Gaps you fixed in advance become a selling point.
What does the buyer's security diligence actually look at?
Typical scope includes identity and access controls (especially MFA coverage), incident history and breach disclosure, data handling and privacy compliance, security policies and whether they're followed, vendor and subcontractor risk, product/application security for software companies, and — in healthcare — HIPAA posture and business associate agreements. Diligence teams look for evidence, not assertions.
We're a healthtech company. What's different about our diligence?
Healthcare data raises the stakes on everything: HIPAA compliance becomes a diligence line item with real deal impact, PHI handling gets scrutinized end-to-end, and breach history carries regulatory tail risk the buyer inherits. We've taken healthtech companies through private equity acquisition and know what the diligence teams ask for — and what answers keep the deal moving.
Can you support the buy side too?
Yes. For PE firms and strategic acquirers we provide independent security assessments of targets — a practitioner's read on the target's actual security posture, the cost to remediate what's found, and the risks that should price into the deal. We're independent: we don't sell remediation tools or managed services, so the assessment isn't a sales funnel.
What do we get at the end of a sell-side readiness engagement?
A gap assessment mapped to what diligence teams actually ask, a prioritized remediation plan sequenced for deal timelines, cleaned-up security policies and evidence artifacts ready for the data room, and support answering the buyer's security questionnaires and follow-ups as they come in.