Alchemy Partners Agrees to Invest 100 Million Pounds into Kazakhstani Startup

DNA Payments Group, a payment service run by its founders Arif Babayev and Nurlan Zhagiparov from Kazakhstan, has reached a deal with Alchemy Partners. This private investment company from the U.K. wants to pour £100 million into the business of DNA.

DNA provides payment services for more than 45,000 merchants, including big online and offline retailers and small- and medium-sized businesses. Every month, DNA clients have been making about 20 million transactions for more than £600 million.

According to DNA Payments Group founders, the company has managed to expand its business by adding to its system a list of new services such as Pay by Link, Checkout v3, ApplePay, Pay by Bank, PayPal and Open Banking.

«This deal will give us a boost and will help a lot of merchants to receive payments in a fast and easy way either in a shop or online. We have a technology and a vertically integrated system that allows us to take advantage of providing our partners and clients with the best quality of service. It also is an excellent foundation to expand our business further,» said the businessmen in a statement.

Investments by Alchemy Partners are going to be headed for new acquisitions that are a tool for DNA to develop its presence outside of the U.K.

As Alchemy Partners partner Toby Westcott noted, these days many entrepreneurs need multichannel payment solutions.

«Alchemy is always seeking new opportunities to get involved in cooperation with businesses. We are glad to join DNA on its way to creating a new leading payment system in the U.K. and Europe,» he said.

DNA Payments Limited is an independent and fully vertically integrated payment service. The company owns Optomany, the largest British provider of omnichannel payment processing services for corporations and medium-sized businesses. DNA Payments Limited is registered and regulated by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority.

Arif Babayev used to work for ABN AMRO and Royal Bank of Scotland, in Kazakhstan subsidiaries; he also worked as an Executive Director of the Kazkommertsbank. Nurlan Zhagiparov is a former executive director of Kazkommertsbank, who was responsible for the integration of two Kazakhstani banks, Kazkommertsbank and Halykbank. In the period from 2018 to 2019, he used to be a member of Halykbank’s board.

Alchemy Partners is a private company from the U.K. established in 1997. Since then, the company has invested more than £4 billion in companies and organizations in 14 countries.