Cambridge payment platform pioneers set to move into profit after a trio of successful years
Bango ready to move into profitability
Cambridge mobile payment platform pioneer Bango has announced a massive increase in end user spend of £92.3million and expects to move into profitability within months.
Interim results to June reveal that revenue has more than doubled and losses have narrowed considerably.
The company enables mobile app stores to power direct carrier billing (DCB) for their customers. Bango enables app store customers to click and buy apps or in-app content, placing the charge directly onto their mobile phone bill. Facilitating direct carrier billing (DCB) payments for physical goods was a worldwide first for Amazon and is a significant endorsement of the Bango platform.
Bango CEO Ray Anderson was pleased with the results, which also showed that cash at the end of June was £5.6million – comfortably enough to see the company through to profitability.
Mr Anderson told the Cambridge Independent yesterday: “The good news is that we are on track for the third year running to double our end user spend, which is due to the platforms being adopted broadly and widely. The momentum is continuing to accelerate, which is great.
“As well as showing traction with end user spend, revenue increased from a year ago, to more than double, so people are paying for the value of the platform, which is great news.
“That means we have developed this technology which is being valued by our customers and helping them expand their business.
“The other highlight was going into Japan with DCB and that has started to generate business and it is off to a very promising start.
“It is good to have three of the largest companies – Microsoft, Google and Amazon – using our platforms going forward.
“The largest internet businesses are expanding their use of the Bango platform to reach new customers and increase the return on their marketing investments.
“Cash stands us in good stead going into profitability and we are expecting that to be in the next few weeks.
“A lot of the end user spend goes to the developers. The revenue that cames into our coffers last year was around £1.7million. The rest is money that flows through to the merchant through the app store.”
But Bango is not just about profit. It recently made its app technology available free of charge to help victims of the hurricanes Harvey and Irma in America. It has so far helped to bring in millions in aid.
Mr Anderson added: “We have done a lot of support for charitable donations for the American
Red Cross, who are helping to provide relief for the victims of Harvey and Irma.
“We are not making any profit from that but we delighted to be helping people out in Florida and Texas and other places.
“We enable people who want to donate money to the Red Cross relief effort by enabling our app for people to make a one-time or regular donation. That is primarily for American consumers. But we were very keen to help out.”