DNA Payments, a United Kingdom-based fully vertically integrated omnichannel payments firm, which provides payments processing for businesses, reached the milestone of 100,000 card terminals and Points of Sale (PoS) in 2023 April. The start-up has also teamed up with Mastercard to deliver ‘Click to Pay’ solution for merchants in Europe.
DNA Payments has also tied up embedded finance provider Liberis, a deal which can be the game-changer in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector, as Liberis will be analysing data from DNA Payments to offer pre-approved funding to over 65,000 of their merchant customers across Europe.
DNA Payments, established in 2018, took its first external funding in 2021 from private equity firm Alchemy Partners. While the company’s losses reportedly grew from 2.6 million pounds in 2020 to 8.9 million pounds in 2021, the start-up expanded its headcount by 313% (198 employees currently) in 2023.
Knowing DNA Payments In Detail
As of June 2023, the start-up is helping over 65,000 merchants across the United Kingdom and Europe with its cutting-edge industry solutions for online, in-store and on-the-go businesses.
American Express, Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, name any biggie of the online payments industry, it has a tie-up with the UK-headquartered venture.
“Our Group includes Optomany, a company that services large corporates and medium-sized businesses; and 123Send, Active Payments, First Payment Merchant Services, Kwalitas, and Card Cutters, who all provide services to SME customers. Our combined Group is one of the largest PaaS and SaaS services providers to multinational acquirers and banks,” the company stated.
“We’re FCA (The UK Financial Conduct Authority) regulated for consumer hire with headquarters in London and operational hubs in Kent, Hull and Oxford, and now serve over 65,000 merchants. That’s around £900,000,000 processed monthly across 100,000 POS terminals worldwide,” it remarked further.
DNA Payments was launched in August 2018 with just three people. In September of that year, the start-up launched its first e-commerce payment solution. In July 2019, it got its first ‘Valued Ecommerce Customer’, followed by the launch of its merchant portal v1. In September 2019, the company acquired CR7 Services and a month later, reached the landmark of having 30,000 customers in the United Kingdom.
In 2020-21, DNA Payments acquired Zash AB, launched its maiden payment link solution, reached the 40,000 customer landmark in the UK, launched ‘Pay by Bank App Payments’, acquired ‘Active Merchant Services’, enabled ‘PayPal E-commerce payments’, introduced Partners’ Dashboard, started its open banking payments mechanism, apart from enabling payment set-ups with two tech biggies, Apple and Google.
The year 2021 also saw DNA Payments launching Verifone and PAX terminals software, apart from launching its integration with ‘BigCommerce’. DNA Payments’ growth journey continued in 2022 as well. It started the year by acquiring UK-based payment solutions provider Kwalitas, followed by the launch of its ‘First Verifone Trinity series POS Terminal’. Also, the start-up acquired ‘Card Cutters’ and ‘First Payment Merchant Services’, apart from reaching 100,000 card terminals and online points of sale.
Apart from partnering up with Mastercard to deliver ‘Click to Pay’, DNA Payments, in 2023, has continued to upgrade its Merchant Portal.
Services Offered By DNA Payments
The start-up, established by Arif Babayev and Nurlan Zhagiparov, provides businesses with online payment solutions through Mobile Card Machines, Portable Card Machines, Countertop Card Machines, Unattended Terminals and Zash Android Epos.
For online transactions between businesses and customers, DNA Payments have solutions like ‘Website Payments’, ‘Virtual Terminal’, ‘No-Code Payment Links’, ‘Recurring Payments’ and ‘Charity Donations’.
How Do These Solutions Work?
The ‘Mobile Card Machines’ accept chip, PIN, contactless and mobile payments with major card providers and popular payment methods, with 24/7 operational availability.
Reliable internet connectivity, long battery life, quick processing speed and printer friendly are the key features of these ‘Mobile Card Machines’, which are suitable for contractors, taxi drivers and delivery service providers.
These ‘Mobile Card Solutions’ can be branded as well by DNA Payments, in order to ensure that the client company’s brand awareness runs throughout its payment system.
Also, the start-up’s portable card machines allow businesses to accept payments anywhere in-store.
These devices are facilitated with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G and 4G connections, so that they can be connected to the printing machines, in order to ensure quick generation of receipts in a fast-paced working atmosphere like the ones in supermarkets, pubs, eateries and beauty salons. Also, these portable card machines come with the feature of emailing the receipts directly to the customers, in case the latter doesn’t want paper printouts.
The above two solutions are just prime examples of how DNA Payments’ solutions cover the specific transaction-related needs of businesses across sizes. The ‘Unattended Terminal’ is perfect for entities like petrol pumps and ticket vending centres, which encounter long customer queues and lack payment features which are quick, easy and secure.
Through DNA’s merchant portal, businesses can track transactions, authorise refunds and pull sales reports using data analytics, along with accepting payments online without using a website (for this, the businesses can send Payment Links to their customers through email/other online communication methods).
The start-up’s ‘Payment Gateway’ mechanism aids its client businesses to enjoy the benefits of technologies like ‘Automated Routing’ and ‘Secure Tokenisation’, thus making it easy for these entities to accept and process credit and debit card payments online.
“Our Payment Gateway allows for frictionless transactions across multiple sales channels and was developed to work with all major payment providers so it can be implemented easily into your business’s payment process,” DNA Payments stated.
“Only one token is needed for transactions, so you can monitor and get insight without affecting security. Our Payment Gateway facilitates a seamless journey between your sales channels, unifying your platforms and opportunities,” it stated further.
DNA’s ‘Payment Gateway’ has direct integrations with the world’s leading payment systems and processes payments from all merchant sale points.
“Businesses are becoming global, so we’ve developed our Payment Solutions to accept all payment methods worldwide. You’ve got complete control over payment types you choose to receive, all managed using our Merchant Portal,” it stated further.
Also, the company has all-around data security and fraud analytics protocols set in place, while meeting the global cyber security standards.
The Road Ahead
Having an online payment mechanism, based on tools like card terminals and ‘Points of Sale’, is quickly becoming a must for 21st century businesses.
DNA Payments, through strategic partnerships with Mastercard and Liberis, is already on its way to becoming an industry giant in the digital payment sector. From petrol pumps, departmental stores to pubs and eateries, the start-up has established customised online transaction-related solutions for businesses of all sizes.
However, the real challenge for DNA Payments will be to stay future-proof, as online payment mechanisms are evolving at a much faster pace than anyone’s imagination.