Private Equity & Investment Due Diligence

James Davies provides technical and commercial due diligence for investors evaluating opportunities in trading infrastructure, commodities, payments, and digital assets. This work draws on 25+ years of operating experience across exchanges, trading platforms, and regulated financial services businesses — not as an analyst looking in, but as someone who has built, scaled, and operated these businesses from the inside.

Investment Due Diligence

Since 2014, James has assessed or reviewed due diligence material on hundreds of transactions for private equity firms, venture investors, family offices, and individual investors. Engagements have ranged from formal mandates for major institutional acquirers evaluating significant platform acquisitions through to rapid assessments for trusted contacts evaluating early-stage opportunities.

The approach is forensic. James examines:

Financial Model Integrity — Stress-testing revenue assumptions against market reality. Interrogating unit economics, customer concentration risk, and revenue quality. Identifying where management projections diverge from achievable outcomes based on comparable businesses and market dynamics. Understanding the difference between reported metrics and sustainable performance.

Technology & Architecture — Evaluating build quality, technical debt, scalability constraints, and integration complexity. Assessing whether platforms can support projected growth or whether significant reinvestment will be required. Identifying where technology is genuinely proprietary versus commodity infrastructure with limited defensive moat.

Regulatory Positioning — Deep assessment of licensing status, compliance infrastructure, and regulatory risk. James has personally written and submitted payment licence applications (PSD2/EMI) in multiple jurisdictions, prepared MTF applications, and navigated FCA, BaFin, CFTC, and SEC approval processes. This direct experience enables identification of regulatory gaps, upcoming compliance costs, and jurisdictional risks that generalist advisors typically miss.

Client Relationship Depth — Evaluating the quality and stickiness of customer relationships. Understanding whether revenue is transactional or embedded, whether switching costs are real or theoretical, and whether key client relationships sit with the institution or with individuals who may depart. Mapping the true competitive landscape and assessing positioning against well-capitalised incumbents.

Management Capability — Assessing whether leadership teams have the experience to execute on their plans. Identifying gaps between stated strategy and operational capability. Understanding incentive structures and alignment.

Competitive & Market Dynamics — Mapping the value chain, identifying where margin sits, and assessing sustainability of competitive position. Understanding which adjacent players could enter the market and at what cost.

Sectors covered include energy and commodities trading, exchange and clearing infrastructure, OTC derivatives platforms, crypto and DeFi protocols, payments and e-money businesses, banking-as-a-service, and most recently carbon and environmental markets.

Capital Raising Advisory

James has advised approximately ten companies on fundraising, supporting founders and management teams through the capital raising process. This includes:

• Strategic positioning and narrative development

• Financial model review and stress-testing before investor exposure

• Pitch deck structure and refinement

• Direct introductions to institutional investors, family offices, and strategic acquirers across his network

• Preparation for investor due diligence and Q&A

Many of these engagements have been in payments, trading infrastructure, and digital assets — sectors where James's direct operating experience and relationships provide immediate credibility with sophisticated investors.

All client engagements are conducted under strict confidentiality.