Monitise announces new partners as FY revenues lift over 31%
Monday 15 September 2014 | 09:25 CET | News
Monitise announced a strategic partnership with Santander to develop new mobile banking innovations. The mobile money specialist said the products will be the first of their kind to launch on the UK market. The first service launches this week. Monitise will also host services in a new IBM facility in North Carolina. The cloud-based bank-grade infrastructure will enable the hub to scale up and handle Mobile Money services for hundreds of millions of subscribers. Initial target markets are North and Central America as well as South American markets such as Brazil. Monitise will qualify IBM data centres around the globe, in line with expanding customer base needs and with local data protection requirements.
The specialist reported said revenues for its year to end June lifted 31 percent from the year before to GBP 95.1 million, with the EBITDA loss narrower than expected at GBP 31.4 million and net cash at GBP 146 million. The value of transfers and payments across the company’s platforms surged 120 percent to USD 88 billion. Live transactions at end June went to 4.0 billion from 2.4 billion the year before while the number of registered users rose to 30 million, from 23 million the year earlier. The number of users of Monitise software passed 60 million, including apps designed by the company’s Create and MEA divisions.
The company said it was transitioning to a product-led and subscription-based business and that it has created a new global Content division, which will focus on sourcing loyalty, discount and offers programmes to augment Monitise’s Buy Anything mobile commerce product offerings.
The specialist reported a growing retailer presence, delivering content from over 60,000 brands and retailers across industry verticals such as restaurants, music and media, DIY, travel, health and beauty and utilities. Brands within the network include Burger King, Pizza Hut, Sky, Spar, B&Q, Tesco, ticketmaster, M&S, Home Depot, Target, Waterstone’s, Boots, The Body Shop, Primark, iTunes, and Nintendo.
Boosted by a number of new initiatives with MasterCard, Monitise expects to announce more customers and products in the coming weeks and months.
The company also reported a number of new appointments. Former Visa Europe CEO Peter Ayliffe was named non-executive chairman. Mike Dreyer, former global head of technology at Visa, was appointed president, Americas, on 1 September. Finally, Adam Banks, former CTO and head of IT at Visa Europe, will spearhead development of Monitise’s platform technology.
Monitise kept its guidance for full year 2015, saying it sees revenues up at 25 percent, and capex at GBP 35-45 million. It expects to become EBITDA profitable in FY 2016, with revenue growth accelerating. For 2018, Monitise is guiding for 200 million registered users at GBP 2.50 ARPU, an EBITDA margin of at least 30 percent, and a sustainable gross margin above 70 percent.
The company continues to consider a move to a main London Stock Exchange listing.
