Houlihan Lokey Advises DNA Payments

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that DNA Payments Group (DNA), the fast-growing, vertically integrated payments company, has signed a £100 million deal with Alchemy Partners (Alchemy). The transaction was announced 14 June 2021.

DNA, founded in 2018 and headquartered in London, is a fast-growing, vertically integrated payments company with fully cloud-based omnichannel payment processing capabilities and also provides a variety of SaaS and PaaS solutions to major global acquirers and payment schemes. DNA Payments currently serves over 45,000 merchants ranging from major online and offline retailers to SMEs, providing them with over 70,000 terminals that make over 20 million transactions worth £600 million a month. In addition to the DNA Payments brand, the group operates under the Zash, Active Payments, 123Send, and Optomany brands. DNA has a strong pipeline of opportunities and signed a £100 million deal to accelerate its growth and continue its strategy of making selective acquisitions—not only in the UK, but also internationally.

Alchemy, founded in 1997, targets opportunities across Europe to partner with and work alongside management teams, helping them create and grow value by solving problems, take difficult decisions, and drive through change. Since inception, Alchemy has completed over 190 transactions, investing over £4 billion into companies and organisations spread across 14 countries. Alchemy will partner with the DNA founders to capitalise on investment opportunities that others may not be able to access, build a leading payments business in the UK, and expand into Europe.

Houlihan Lokey served as the sole financial advisor to DNA.