Dojo has established itself as arguably the UK’s leading SME payments provider. But results for the year to March 2026 for Typhoon Noteco (the holding company) show the business straining under the weight of its debt mountain, even as transaction volumes continue to grow, and international expansion gathers pace.
Payment volume was up 8% to £49.6bn made up from 4% growth in transactions and a 4% increase in ATV to £19.84. Growth has moderated significantly since the breakneck expansion of the past few years as competition intensified in the UK.
Dojo’s early success rested on its fast, elegant Android terminals (notably the PAX A920), a slick onboarding experience, and a distribution model powered by generously incentivised self-employed agents. It has since expanded its product suite to include SoftPOS and claims over 450 ePOS and ISV integrations in the UK and 150 in Spain. Dojo says it continues to win ISV partnerships because of its reliable platform and “seamless” API integrations. That strategy has worked — but it has also been copied – making gaining market share much harder.
The so-called “tap pack” — SumUp, Square, Viva, myPOS, Zettle and now FlatPay — are all pressing into the UK. Adyen is hoovering up ISV relationships while software-first providers such as Toast are increasingly offering integrated payments solutions. Dojo’s lack of a proprietary ePOS makes it attractive to partners but equally leaves it reliant on these partners to defend its turf. This can be risky when an ISV changes strategy. For example, EPOS Now, one of Dojo’s best partners, is aggressively moving merchants to its in-house payment service provided by Adyen.
Yet Dojo is still growing. Total customer numbers were up by 8% to 155,280. In general, Dojo has been targeting larger merchants such as Cote and Pizza Pilgrims and this is reflected in the average payment volume of over £300,000 per customer.
Revenue was up 11% to £501m. Processing fees were up 12%, terminal leasing fees were flat at £39m while revenue from other services, including business loans, rose 11% to £48m. Dojo has now facilitated £2bn of merchant cash advance to over 30,000 of its customers via YouLend. It has now launched more conventional business loans from Liberis and a business credit card through Capital on Tap, an associated company.
All in all, the revenue yield ticked up 3bps to a very healthy 1.01%. Revenue per transaction grew 6% to 20p. The basic economics look good. The strategic questions are about growth.
With UK growth moderating, international expansion is becoming central to Dojo’s story. The group has secured an e-money licence in Ireland and has launched in Spain (hiring a strong local team) and Italy. These markets are dominated by incumbent acquirers who have been slow to modernise, but unlike the UK in 2020, Dojo won’t enjoy years of open runway. Domestic competitors such as Nexi in Italy are not standing still and the “tap pack” is present and well-funded. Execution will be critical.
Revenue from Dojo’s new markets of Ireland, Spain and Italy was up 78% to £22m but this number represents just 4% of total sales. There’s a long way to go but management is positive, saying “these early successes provide strong validation of our international playbook and the planned acceleration of investment in these markets.”
Cost of sales rose 18% to £270m, resulting in a rise of just 3% in gross profit to £231m. Gross margin fell 3.4ppt to 46.1%, partly reflecting the migration of higher-margin customers from the legacy Paymentsense brand. Whether margins recover as this process concludes remains to be seen.
Other costs are well under control. Administrative expenses were up just 1% at £219m. Staff costs fell 9% even though employee numbers rose 4% to 1,197. Average cost per employee was down 12% to £65,000.
After other income of £10m, including £1.9m of incentives from card schemes, Dojo recorded an operating profit of £22m, representing a respectable margin of 4%. Net finance costs on Dojo’s debt were £93.5m, leading to a pre-tax loss of £71m. Adjusted EBITDA, management’s preferred measure of profitability, fell 7% to £91m.
Vitruvian Partners invested £140m in Dojo in April 2025. This has strengthened the balance sheet. Net debt was down 9% at £593m but a decline in underlying cash generation will add to the challenge of servicing and ultimately refinancing the group’s substantial borrowings.
Accumulated losses now stand at £792m. Net debt remains a hefty 6.5 times adjusted EBITDA, leaving the business highly leveraged ahead of the November 2029 maturity of its £625m principal loan facility. Management says it has sufficient liquidity and forecasts covenant compliance, including under downside scenarios but this remains a significant risk.
One intriguing sidebar stems from Dojo’s plan to move from its high-profile office in the Brunel Building at Paddington – which it shares with the Premier League and GB News – to the even swankier Renzo Piano-designed Paddington Square nearby. The deal fell through leaving Dojo obliged to settle this long running property dispute with an agreed payment of £15.7m. This was first reported with a provision in last year’s accounts.
Dojo remains a formidable player. Its scale, brand recognition and partner network have given it a substantial share of the UK SME market, with transaction volumes still climbing. But growth is slowing, gross margins are under pressure and the group’s substantial borrowings continue to absorb much of its earnings.
The investment from Vitruvian Partners has provided valuable breathing space, but operating cash generation has fallen despite growing revenues. The challenge now is to translate higher volumes into stronger margins and sufficient free cash flow to fund the business without repeated injections of equity.
International expansion offers an opportunity but also requires further investment in markets where Dojo faces established competitors and a resurgent “tap pack”. Having demonstrated that it can win merchants, Dojo now needs to demonstrate that it can earn an attractive return from serving them.
