“Can an independent UK/EU acquirer out-execute Stripe and Worldpay by owning the whole omnichannel stack and layering embedded SMB finance on top?”
Founded in 2018, DNA Payments has grown through a serial-acquisition strategy to become one of the largest independent, vertically integrated omnichannel payments companies in the UK and EU. Alchemy Partners' £100M 2021 investment accelerated European expansion. The business is now layering embedded merchant finance (merchant cash advance plus an iwoca lending integration) and open-banking payments (Zapp / Pay by Bank) onto its core acquiring stack.
DNA Payments processes payments through DNA Payments (self-operated).
DNA Payments's lending and capital products are provided by iwoca.
DNA Payments connects to bank accounts through Zapp (Pay by Bank).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 3 layers in DNA Payments's stack: Payments / PSP (DNA Payments (self-operated)); Lending (iwoca, Merchant Cash Advance and iwoca Flexi Loan (£1k–£1M)); Open banking (Zapp (Pay by Bank)).
DNA Payments was founded by Arif Babayev and Nurlan Zhagiparov and is founded in 2018, headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
DNA Payments has raised £100M+ in total (latest round: PE Growth, 2021).
DNA Payments's acquisitions include Active Merchant Services (2021).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against DNA Payments and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.