Bango raises fresh funds as it continues to progress
It has secured an enhanced loan facility from NHN under which the existing lending will swell by $2.85 million and include a deferral off principal repayments for 18 months. Bango has also secured a $15m revolving credit facility with NatWest which provides a committed, long-term financing solution that will replace the existing £3m overdraft from Barclays.
Bango boosted revenue by 11 per cent to $36.2m for the year to December 31 and cut losses after tax from $8.8m to $3.7m.
During the year the company won nine new Digital Vending Machine licence customers to take its DVM haul to 27; 110 content providers connected to the DVM - up from 93 at the end of the previous year. The company also unveiled various successes in the US and Europe.
It further unveiled the first customer launch of the Bango DVM CX (user interface) with Altice in the US. Bango says the DVM CX reduces the effort for resellers when launching bundled offers, allowing them to launch much faster. It is sold as an additional license fee. DVM is on track to once again deliver double digit revenue growth in-line with consensus.
Board changes are on the way. Anil Malhotra and Frank Bury will formally step down from the Board at the end of the June 30 AGM.
CEO Paul Larbey said: "2024 was a pivotal year for Bango, marked by strong revenue growth, a significant increase in profitability, and strategic progress across both our Digital Vending Machine® and Payments businesses.
"We delivered a 16 per cent increase in total revenue and more than doubled Adjusted EBITDA to $15.3m, reflecting the operational leverage of our platform and disciplined cost management. The DVM continues to gain global traction, with 9 new customers added during the year and a strong pipeline rapidly converting in 2025 with six new wins - including our first customer in South Korea.
“With tens of millions of subscriptions already managed and the scalability to support hundreds of millions more, Bango is uniquely placed to benefit from the structural shift toward subscription-based services and indirect distribution models.
"Increasingly, the Bango DVM is becoming the standard platform for subscription bundling - not just in capability but also in reputation. It's the solution recommended by some of the world's largest content providers when their partners want to scale subscriptions and build customer engagement and now serves six of the top eight US communication service providers. This positions Bango at the very heart of the global subscription economy.
“In the Payments business, Bango continues to have a leading position in the market and remains the largest Direct Carrier Billing partner for the Google Play store, the only partner powering DCB for the Amazon store in Japan and the sole provider of online DCB services to NTT DOCOMO Japan - the largest operator, in the most valuable DCB market. With the migration of traffic from the DOCOMO Digital platform to the Bango platform we are optimizing our Payments business for cash and profitability by simplifying operations.
“The financing provided by NatWest and NHN demonstrate strong confidence in Bango's business model & strategic plan and materially strengthens the balance sheet. The decision to make the strategic investment in DVM coupled with the market growth in "Super bundling" are driving a strong sales pipeline.
"This combined with disciplined cost management, a reduction in R & D capex and the inherent operational leverage of our platform will deliver a step-change in cash generation in FY26 and drive shareholder returns. We view the future opportunity with both confidence and excitement."
