Mobile payments company Bango plc (LON:BGO) has seen spending across its platform grow in line with expectations in 2017 so far.
Given that the company is expecting to at least double what it calls its end user spend (EUS) rate by the end of this year, that’s pretty good going.
The update on current trading came in a full-year results statement that largely confirmed the numbers for 2016 that were released back in January.
Total revenue doubled to £2.6mln from £1.3mln in 2015, while the annualised EUS at the end of 2016 was up 191% year-on-year at £195mln a year, due to growth from existing and newly acquired channels.
EUS revenue expressed as a percentage of EUS was 1.8%, the same as in 2015, but an improvement on the 1.67% seen in the first half of 2016.
The underlying loss (LBITDA) narrowed to £2.8mln from £3.1mln in 2015.
Cash at the end of 2016 had declined to £5.7mln from £12.1mln a year earlier following the acquisition in May of BilltoMobile Inc.
Bango said the activation pipeline for new routes is stronger than ever with 220 identified opportunities across various stores, including Google, Microsoft and Samsung.
"End user spend (EUS) grew ahead of expectations in 2016 due to a combination of growth from existing routes plus new business coming with the acquisition of BilltoMobile. The ability of the Bango platform to efficiently process this extra volume and deliver organic EUS growth, supported by unique products like Bango Boost and Bango Dashboard, demonstrates the power of the platform,” claimed Ray Anderson, chief executive officer of Bango.
“The strength of Bango on Android and other web platforms is cementing its key position in the largest and fastest growing parts of the market, with DCB [direct carrier billing] becoming an increasingly popular method of payment for the growing range of services sold to mobile users over the internet,” Anderson added.
Crucially, Anderson said the Bango platform can now handle US$2bn of transactions per year without additional investment in the infrastructure, which means the pathway to profitability is clear.
“Bango continues to perform load testing to ensure that it can comfortably meet the expectations of the leading stores connected to Bango," Anderson assured.
Shares in Bango are up 45% year-to-date and have more than doubled over the last year.