In today’s world, where digital threats evolve rapidly, cyber security it’s fundamental to business resilience, stakeholder trust, and sustainable value creation. We are proud that Synova has recently featured us as a strategic partner in their latest Responsible Investing Report, recognising our shared commitment to embedding cyber resilience across both their firm and their portfolio.
In this blog, we unpack how we support Synova and its portfolio companies, the structure, scale, outcomes, and future ambition and illustrate how cyber security is integral to responsible investing.
Context: Synova’s Responsible Investing Evolution
Synova’s 2024 Responsible Investing Report offers a comprehensive account of how the firm is embedding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into its investment approach - not merely as risk mitigants, but as value creators.
Over the past year, Synova has strengthened its oversight and processes, refining ESG due diligence, appointing a Senior Responsible Investment Manager, and embedding RI practices throughout the investment lifecycle.
Cyber security has emerged as a key focus area. In 2024, 94% of portfolio companies participated in structured cyber security assessments delivered through our partnership. This reflects Synova’s recognition that cyber resilience is essential to sustainable operations and investor confidence.
How We Support Synova: Partnership Model & Capabilities
Our partnership with Synova is structured to deliver both strategic insight and hands-on support. At its heart, the programme is designed to build cyber maturity across the portfolio, starting from day one of investment and evolving year over year. Here’s how we do it together:
1. Portfolio-wide Cyber Assessments & Tailored Scoring
- Launch & onboarding: Upon new investments, Synova introduces their portfolio companies to our partnership, ensuring security isn’t an afterthought but a foundation.
- Annual ‘MOT’ reviews: Each company undergoes a structured cybersecurity assessment (i.e. a “cyber scorecard”), benchmarking their posture across five core dimensions: strategy, governance, risk, third-party oversight, and operational security & development.
- Tailored scoring & benchmarking: The results include an overall score, peer benchmarking, and a set of prioritized recommendations to guide enhancements.
This repeatable annual process helps ensure that each portfolio company’s cyber programme evolves in step with threat landscape and maturity expectations.
2. Ongoing Clinics, Mentoring & Expert Guidance
- Quarterly clinics: Leadership teams are invited to dedicated sessions where we share independent advice, address strategic challenges, and coach on risk-management practices.
- Ad-hoc mentoring: Portfolio companies can tap into our cyber experts at any time, seeking guidance and support for day-to-day questions, incident readiness, or emerging challenges.
This model ensures that cyber remains a living, dynamic agenda - not a one-off audit that gets shelved.
3. Embedded Programmes, Certification & Culture
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We help companies adopt recognised cyber security certifications (ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, etc.). In 2024, 81% of Synova’s portfolio companies held a cyber security certification (up from 72% in 2023).
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We support embedding security policies, training programmes, monitoring capabilities, disaster-recovery planning, third-party oversight, and more.
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All this translated in an incredible progress in 2024 for the Portfolio:
- 100% of companies implemented a daily backup solution
- 93% actively manage cyber risk via a formal programme
- 100% include cyber in their business continuity / disaster recovery plans
- 93% have active security monitoring solutions in place
These capabilities help translate the assessment into sustained action, governance, and risk mitigation.
Demonstrable Results & Portfolio Impact
The 2024 metrics speak to both breadth and depth:
- 94% participation ratev in the cyber security assessments across the portfolio
- 81% of companies are now certified in cyber security standards
- Broad adoption of key security practices (backup, monitoring, third-party oversight, continuity planning) across the portfolio
- Strong alignment with the three pillars of support (scorecard, clinics, mentoring), ensuring companies receive ongoing value from the programme
These results show that cyber security is maturing from “evaluation” to “action” across Synova’s ecosystem.
Why This Matters in Responsible Investing
Cyber risk is deeply connected to governance, reputation, operational resilience, and investor confidence. Some of the key arguments:
- Risk mitigation: Better preparedness reduces the likelihood and cost of breaches, service disruption, or regulatory fallout.
- Value protection & creation: Companies with strong cyber practices are more likely to retain client trust, scale securely, and avoid deal-breaking vulnerabilities.
- ESG integration: Cyber security increasingly sits under the “governance” or “operational resilience” pillar of ESG frameworks. Investing responsibly means anticipating and addressing digital risk.
- Differentiation & market expectations: As investors, clients, and regulators raise expectations, portfolio companies that adopt mature cyber practices gain credibility and competitive advantage.
By weaving cyber security into Synova’s RI programme, we help ensure that digital risk is not an afterthought, but a core dimension of sustainable growth.
Looking Ahead
Synova has set an ambitious agenda - refining its RI strategy, hosting an inaugural Sustainability Forum, scaling tech-enabled reporting, and evolving its priorities to remain “future-fit.”
On the cyber front, our joint priorities include advancing maturity across all companies, deepening peer benchmarking, integrating cyber with broader governance and climate agendas, and increasing automation in reporting and threat detection.
It is a privilege to be named a strategic partner in Synova’s Responsible Investing Report. Our collaboration underscores a shared belief: that cyber security is foundational in the modern ESG agenda - essential for protecting value, inspiring confidence, and enabling sustainable growth.
We look forward to continuing this journey, driving deeper maturity, and helping portfolio companies stay resilient in a complex, connected world.
Photo by Alexander Abero on Unsplash
Lucia Turner
Nicolas Aristegui
Niall McElroy
Andrei Draghiciu