Challenges
Portfolio companies often have fragmented or under-optimised payments:
- Excessive merchant service costs
- Poor Direct Debit collection process
- High payment failure rates
- Inefficient payment processes
- Legacy provider contracts
These issues often remain unchallenged and quietly erode EBITDA, cashflow and operational efficiency
Where Payments Hide EBITDA Leakage
Merchant & Processing Costs
Merchant & Processing Costs
Merchant & Processing Costs
- Legacy merchant contracts
- unchallenged interchange / acquiring fees
- inefficient payment routing
Collection Performance
Merchant & Processing Costs
Merchant & Processing Costs
- High collection failure rates
- Poor retry strategies
- Sub-optimal collection timing
Operational inefficiencies
Merchant & Processing Costs
Operational inefficiencies
- Manual reconciliation
- Fragmented payment reporting
- Multiple legacy providers
Customer Payment Experience
Merchant & Processing Costs
Operational inefficiencies
- Friction in payment setup
- Limited payment options
- Increased payment failures & churn
Graytide addressing the Challenges
Value
Graytide helps PE-backed companies:
- Reduce card processing and merchant service costs
- Improve Direct Debit collection success rates
- Reduce payment failures and operational inefficiencies
- Optimise payment provider contracts
- Improve reporting and payment visibility
- Identify the most effective payment methods for new products, services or revenue models.
Result: Improved cashflow, EBITDA, customer retention and operational efficiency
Ideal Portfolio Company
- Recurring or subscription revenue
- £2m - £250m turnover
- High transaction volumes
- Direct Debit, Open Banking or card-heavy collections
- Growing or scaling payment operations.
Typical sectors:
- Technology / SaaS / subscription businesses
- Membership & Education organisations
- Charities & fundraising platforms
- Utilities & Energy
Typical Value Creation Opportunities
Common opportunities identified during payment reviews:
- Reduction in merchant fees (often 10%-30%)
- Direct Debit success rate improvements
- Faster Direct Debit setup and collection cycles
- Removal of legacy providers, risks and inefficiencies
- Improved reporting and reconciliation
These improvements often require no major system changes.
Even modest improvements in payment performance can deliver meaningful EBITDA impact across a portfolio.
Why Graytide?
Your Trusted Payments Value Creation Advisor
- 25+ years in UK payments
- Led some of the UK’s largest Bacs Bureaux
- CEO with prior exits to trade buyers and experience within PE-backed businesses
- Worked across Payments, Finance, 3PL, Contact Centre, Tech and Not-For-Profit sectors
- Deep operational and commercial expertise
- Independent (not tied to a payment provider)
- Practical recommendations with real operational experience
Contact Us
Payments value creation advisor to Private Equity portfolios
Please contact us to arrange a call or in-person meeting.
Graytide
Hours
Today | Closed |
