Case Study: Dealflo

How a Series B fintech moved from diagnosis to acquisition-ready in six months, using the team and technology already in the business, and was acquired by NASDAQ-listed OneSpan for £41M.

£41M

Acquired by OneSpan
(NASDAQ: OSPN)

$15B+

Financial transactions
processed annually

6 months

Diagnostics through
to delivery

Client: Dealflo

Industry: Fintech, financial agreement automation and identity verification for motor finance and leasing

Product: Cloud-based platform automating end-to-end financial agreements for major financial institutions including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Santander, BNP Paribas, and Prudential, serving the automotive finance sector

Engagement: Product Diagnostics and Fixes: Customer research, customer segmentation, product strategy, mobile-first redesign, design system creation, development oversight

Timeline: Approximately 6 months end to end: 8 weeks of Product Diagnostics followed by 4 months of Product Fixes

Headline result: Transformed the platform experience across mobile, tablet, and desktop, resolving critical mobile drop-offs, enabling white-label customisation for global automotive brands, and contributing to the commercial profile that led to a £41M acquisition

The Situation

Dealflo had just closed a £10 million Series B investment. The business was growing. Its platform automated the full lifecycle of complex financial agreements, from customer onboarding and identity verification through to e-signature and secure document vaulting, and it was being used by some of the world's largest financial institutions to power automotive finance transactions. The underlying technology worked. The commercial traction was real.

The problem was the product experience. The platform had been built as a desktop application and was struggling to keep up with how its customers actually needed to use it. The user base wasn't a single audience. It was a chain of interconnected user groups, each with different requirements, all using the same platform in different contexts. Financial institutions were configuring agreements. Automotive marketing teams wanted the platform to look and feel like their own brand. Dealership sales staff were sitting with customers on the showroom floor, often on tablets. And end customers were being asked to review financial documents, verify their identity, and sign agreements, increasingly on mobile devices.

The product was where all of this broke down. The platform wasn't responsive. On phones it effectively failed. On tablets (the devices dealership staff were handing to customers on the showroom floor) buttons were too small, fonts unreadable, and touch interactions unreliable. Key online clients including CarWow were seeing significant mobile drop-offs. And regardless of device, the flows made no distinction between where the salesperson's role ended and the customer's began. Multiple actions competed for attention on every screen. Nobody knew whose turn it was or what to do next.

With Series B funding secured and major institutional clients depending on the platform, the business needed to scale. But the product experience was becoming the bottleneck. That was where we came in.

Phase 1: Product Diagnostics

Before changing anything, we needed to understand the full picture. Phase 1 runs our Dual Lens approach (Customer Intelligence and Product Efficiency) to build that picture before any product decisions are made.

The core insight: The business understood that multiple customer segments used the platform, but had never articulated why each one mattered differently or how exactly the product needed to serve each of them. The internal team treated it as a single user journey. The diagnostics revealed it was four distinct experiences sharing one platform, each with fundamentally different requirements that the product wasn't meeting.

Lens 1: Customer Intelligence

This is where Customer Intelligence does the work that analytics can't: speaking directly to the people in the transaction chain to understand the why behind the numbers. Analytics could show that mobile users were dropping off. They couldn't explain why, or reveal which part of the chain was breaking. That required working directly with the people involved: who they were, what they were trying to achieve, the pressures they were under, and where this platform sat in the wider transaction they were trying to complete.

By collaborating across teams internally and speaking directly to the people involved at each point in the transaction chain, four distinct customer segments emerged, each with requirements that had been acknowledged in broad terms but never properly understood or translated into product decisions:

Financial institutions (the buyers): The paying clients. Banks and finance houses like Santander and BNP Paribas configuring agreements and managing compliance. They needed regulatory-grade identity verification, flexible agreement workflows, and above all, evidentiary certainty that a signed agreement would hold up if disputed. That last requirement was the hardest, and it was where Dealflo's vaulting technology did the real work: every executed document was sealed at the point of signing with cryptographic proof of customer consent, giving compliance and legal teams an audit trail they could defend in front of a regulator or a judge
Automotive marketing teams (the brand owners): Companies like BMW and Mercedes-Benz had built continuous premium brand experiences from website through to showroom floor. The financial agreement was the one point in that entire chain where the customer was handed to a third-party platform that looked nothing like the brand. Without the ability to bring in their own logo, colours, and typography, the platform created a visible break at the moment of highest customer commitment
Dealership sales staff (the frontline): The people sitting with customers, working from tablets in showroom environments. The financial agreement was the last gate between an interested customer and a signed deal. They needed to guide the customer through the agreement, hand over control for identity verification and signing, then take it back to finalise. All quickly enough that the customer didn't lose interest, and without the platform making them look incompetent in front of someone they were about to ask for several years of finance commitments
End customers (the signers): The individual taking out finance on a vehicle. They needed to review a financial agreement, provide identification and sign it without confusion. The complication: "the customer" was now two distinct groups. Most still completed the process face-to-face with a sales rep on a tablet. But a fast-growing segment were purchasing entirely online through platforms like CarWow, completing the whole process from their phone with no rep present. The platform needed to serve both contexts. It was failing the second in ways that were already costing transactions

The business had a general awareness that these groups existed. What it lacked was a clear articulation of how each group's requirements should translate into product decisions. The diagnostics made this concrete.

Lens 2: Product Efficiency

The second lens runs alongside the first and turns the camera on the product itself: how it's structured, how it's labelled, how it guides people through tasks, how its layouts hold up under real use, and where the design is creating unnecessary friction.

It's a structured expert review rather than an opinion piece. We worked through the platform systematically, looking at navigation, information structure, labelling, interaction patterns, and page-level design, identifying the specific points where the product worked, where it created unnecessary friction, and where the design was quietly costing the business transactions. What we found:

No mobile capability: The platform wasn't responsive. On mobile devices it effectively broke: layouts collapsed, interactions failed, and customers attempting to complete agreements on their phones were abandoning the process. For a platform where end customers increasingly needed to sign documents on mobile, this was a critical commercial risk
Tablet experience failing the frontline: Dealership staff using tablets faced small buttons, small fonts, and touch targets that didn't work reliably. The very people the platform depended on to close transactions were fighting the interface instead of focusing on the customer
Competing actions on every screen: Multiple options were presented simultaneously with no clear hierarchy. Users couldn't identify the primary next step, which increased errors and slowed down what should have been a straightforward sequential process
Confused handover points: The flow between dealership staff and customer was unclear. There was no obvious moment where control transferred from salesperson to customer and back again. Both parties were seeing the same screens with the same options, making it difficult to know whose turn it was and what action to take
No progress visibility: Users entering the agreement process had no sense of how many steps were involved, how long it would take, or where they were in the journey. This created anxiety for customers and frustration for sales staff trying to manage time on the showroom floor
Financial documents difficult to review: The way agreements were presented made them hard to read and navigate, particularly on smaller screens. For a platform whose core purpose was enabling customers to review and sign financial documents, this was a fundamental experience failure
No brand customisation: The platform presented a generic experience regardless of which automotive brand the customer was buying from. Marketing teams at companies like BMW and Mercedes-Benz had no ability to bring their brand identity into the agreement process

Neither lens alone would have been enough. Together, they gave the business something it hadn't had before: the four customer segments defined by what each actually needed from the platform, and exactly where it was helping, falling short, or silently losing revenue, all in one view.

Phase 2: Product Fixes

The conclusion was unambiguous: a commercially successful platform held back by a product experience that didn't match how its four customer segments actually needed to use it. The four-segment view became the foundation for every product decision, giving the team a clear framework for who to build for, what to prioritise, and why.

We worked alongside Dealflo's internal product team (a small analyst team without dedicated product leadership) under the CEO and CFO, with the development team based in Canada. Clear communication and well-defined specifications were essential. The strategy translated into specific, evidence-backed product decisions:

Mobile-first responsive framework: We implemented a responsive solution using a simple, efficient grid system with a single primary column width that scaled across devices. Rather than managing multiple breakpoints (which would have added complexity for the distributed team) we used a flexible approach that adapted cleanly from mobile to tablet to desktop
Design system and component library: We built a comprehensive component library that ensured consistency across the entire experience and gave the Canadian development team a clear, reusable set of building blocks. Every screen, regardless of who built it, maintained the same quality and interaction patterns
One action per screen: We restructured the flows so each screen presented a single clear task with an obvious next step. The primary action was always at the bottom of the screen, navigation was consistent, and users always knew what was being asked of them. This replaced the cluttered multi-option screens that had been causing confusion and errors
Clear handovers between rep and customer: We designed explicit transition points where control passed from dealership salesperson to customer and back again. Each handover was obvious and intentional: the salesperson could hand the device to the customer, the customer could complete their section (reviewing the agreement, providing ID, signing), and the salesperson could then resume to finalise the transaction without the customer needing to remain involved
Navigable agreement process: We added clear progress indication (how many steps, where you are, how long it will take) and restructured how financial documents were presented so they were readable on every screen size, with clear navigation and the ability to save progress and return later. Customers weren't entering the process blind, and dealership staff could manage expectations on the showroom floor
Streamlined identity verification: The KYC process is usually the most bolted-on part of any agreement platform: a separate system, a separate flow, a noticeable break in the journey. Here it wasn't. ID verification, SMS codes, and document uploads were integrated into the same one-action-per-screen approach as the rest of the agreement, so compliance felt native to the journey rather than welded onto the side of it
White-label and global localisation: We defined exactly which elements of the experience could be customised by automotive marketing teams and built this into the component library alongside localisation support from the start. Brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz could bring in their own logo, colours, and typography. The platform could populate with different languages and character sets (including Chinese localisation for Mercedes-Benz's operations in China) without custom development for each market

We led the build of the component library and worked directly with the Canadian development team throughout, ensuring that the strategy translated accurately into implementation. The design system became the bridge between product decisions made in London and code being written in Canada, removing ambiguity and reducing the back-and-forth that typically slows distributed teams.

The Results

£41M acquisition

Acquired by OneSpan (NASDAQ: OSPN), strengthening their Trusted Identity platform

$15B+ transactions

Annual transaction volume processed through the platform at the point of acquisition

Mobile-first platform

From broken mobile experience to fully responsive across phone, tablet, and desktop

Global scale

White-labelled and localised for BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Santander, BNP Paribas, and others

Within six months, the platform went from a desktop-only product with critical mobile failures to a fully responsive, white-labelled, globally localised platform. The mobile drop-offs that had been costing the business transactions (particularly through online channels like CarWow) were resolved. Dealership staff could use tablets naturally on the showroom floor. Automotive brands could present the agreement process as their own.

OneSpan (formerly VASCO Data Security), a NASDAQ-listed global leader in digital identity and anti-fraud solutions, acquired Dealflo for approximately £41 million in cash. The acquisition was strategic: OneSpan was building its Trusted Identity platform, and Dealflo's combination of financial agreement automation, identity verification, and a modern product experience made it the right fit. The two companies already shared a significant customer base. Dealflo's team, including founder and CEO Abe Smith, joined OneSpan to expand the solution into new geographic markets.

“This acquisition will enable us to grow our subscription revenue and Dealflo's technology will be a major differentiator for our eSignLive solution... we see tremendous opportunity to leverage this strategic addition and deliver significant long-term revenue and EBITDA growth in the years to come.”

Scott Clements, CEO, OneSpan (NASDAQ: OSPN)
Acquisition announcement, May 2018

What This Means for PE-Backed Tech

This is a pattern we see repeatedly in PE-backed technology businesses, particularly post-investment. The capital is deployed, the sales team is growing, the client list is impressive, but the product itself hasn't been built around a systematic understanding of how different customer segments actually interact with it. Growth stalls because the product experience creates friction at exactly the points where transactions happen.

The Pattern

When a platform has strong underlying technology and real commercial traction but the product experience hasn't been built around its different customer segments, every product decision is based on assumption rather than evidence. Phase 1 reveals what each customer segment actually needs and where the product is falling short. Phase 2 translates that into the specific product decisions the existing team can execute. Dealflo didn't need a new platform or a bigger team. It needed someone to understand its four customer segments, articulate what each one required, and redesign the experience around those requirements. Six months later, the product was acquisition-ready.

This applies to any technology business with multiple customer segments interacting with the same platform, where product experience is an underused lever in the value creation plan.

Six months from diagnosis to acquisition-ready, using the team and technology already in the business. Dealflo was acquired shortly after by a NASDAQ-listed buyer for £41M. We're now applying the same Product Diagnostics and Fixes methodology with PE-backed tech portfolio companies: a focused intervention sized to deliver a clear commercial multiplier inside a single hold-period window, working alongside operating partners and management teams to unlock product-led value in businesses where the underlying asset is strong and product experience is the next lever in the value creation plan.

About: Building Great Tech is a two-person consultancy bringing 30+ years of combined product and technology experience to a single PE-focused practice. This case study describes work led during a product consultancy engagement with Dealflo (predating BGT as a vehicle), and illustrates the Product Diagnostics and Fixes methodology we now apply with PE-backed tech portfolio companies.

Building Great Tech | Dealflo Case Study