Bango PLC ("Bango" or the "Company") 2023 Full Year Results and 2024 Outlook

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, April 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bango (AIM: BGO) today announces its full year results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2023 and provides an update on the outlook for 2024.

FY23 Financial Overview:

FY23 Operational highlights:

• 9 new Digital Vending Machine® (‘DVM’) license customers (total 18 at end of 2023)
• Bango DVM now used by 3 out of the top 5 US telcos
• 33 new subscription content providers added to the DVM, taking the total to 93 at the end of 2023
• DVM sales opportunity funnel is 7x larger in December 23 versus December 22
• DVM consumer interface released, enabling telcos to launch their DVM faster and providing Bango with more consumer behavior data

Outlook (unaudited)

Bango has delivered a strong first quarter, sustaining good momentum and growing in-line with the plan. We reiterate our guidance for the full year:

• Revenue in Q1 24 grew by over 20% from Q1 23
• Annualized Recurring Revenue at the end of March 2024 increased to $11.0M
• The Tier 1 US telco (previously announced in FY23) launched in Q1 24, triggering the start of the initial license fee tier – minimum $2M ARR
• 4 new DVM wins in Q1 24
• A leading European telco (one of the early DVM customers) extended their DVM contract for a further 3 years. The minimum contract value over the three year term is $1.5M
• The first launch of telco bundling for the (previously announced) Global Technology Leader happened in the quarter.

NewDeep Limited Joint Venture

Bango and NHN Corporation, the two shareholders of the NewDeep Limited joint venture have agreed that it is in the best interests of both shareholders to wind down the joint venture. And, to transfer the technology developed in the joint venture to Bango and NHN so both can use it without restriction in their respective core businesses.

Investor Presentation:

Bango is hosting a presentation, open to all existing and potential shareholders, at 10.00am BST today. Investors can sign up to Investor Meet Company for free and register to join the call here: https://www.investormeetcompany.com/bango-plc/register-investor

Bango CEO, Paul Larbey, said:

“This has been a year of significant development for Bango. Our strategic focus on capturing the subscription bundling opportunity with the Bango Digital Vending Machine® (DVM) is seeing growing momentum, with a doubling of the customer base and a strong growth of 77% in Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR). Our technology is trusted by some of the largest companies in the world who rely on Bango to help them acquire and retain customers.

One major area of focus in 2023 was the ongoing integration of the acquired DOCOMO Digital business, which has materially accelerated our growth. The complexity of the integration was reflected in the low initial purchase price. The integration went well with all $21M of cost synergies realized. With the end of year integration challenges having now been identified and addressed, we have a clear pathway to deliver further operational and cost synergies in 2024.

We entered 2024 with increased momentum, a significantly expanded pipeline and a larger customer base providing clear growth opportunities. In Q1 24, we won 4 new DVM customers and exited the quarter with ARR of $11M.

The subscriptions market remains buoyant, with an increasing variety of services available beyond music and movies. As consumers add subscriptions in all aspects of their lives, it drives the need for a solution to manage these subscriptions and the opportunity for the Digital Vending Machine to become the standard industry platform for subscription bundling. With our product, partners and customers, the building blocks are firmly in place. In the year ahead, our focus is on driving DVM growth with careful control of costs, which, together with increasing long-term revenue visibility, gives us confidence in capturing this opportunity.”

Notes:

The Annual Report, including full accounts, is available at, https://bangoinvestor.com/reports-presentations/, and will be sent to shareholders shortly.

¹ Transactional Revenue is revenue derived by charging a percentage of the retail price paid by the consumer and is made up of carrier billing, resale and e-Disti revenue share amounts.
² DVM, Bango Audiences & One Off Revenue includes all DVM license and support fees, revenue from Bango Audiences and one off fees including DVM set-up and change requests.
³Annual Recurring Revenue is the expected annual revenues to be generated in the next 12 months
based on contracted revenues recognized as at 31 December.
⁴ Net Retention is a measure of the retention and expansion of revenue from existing customers over a specific period and is calculated by dividing the ARR from existing customers at the end of a period by the ARR generated from those same customers at the beginning of the period.
⁵Adjusted EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization, negative goodwill, exceptional items, share of net loss of associate and share based payment charge
⁶Net debt is cash and cash equivalents plus short-term investments less loans and borrowings.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No.596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. The person responsible for making this announcement on behalf of Bango is Paul Larbey, Chief Executive Officer.  

The full announcement can be found here: https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/bango_plc/news/rns/story/w1k0eex

The Annual Report 2023 can be found here: https://bangoinvestor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Annual-report-FY23-Interactive.pdf

Contact Details:    

About Bango

Bango enables content providers to reach more paying customers through global partnerships. Bango revolutionized the monetization of digital content and services, by opening-up online payments to mobile phone users worldwide. Today, the Digital Vending Machine® is driving the rapid growth of the subscriptions economy, powering choice and control for subscribers.

The world's largest content providers, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft trust Bango technology to reach subscribers everywhere.

Bango, where people subscribe. For more information, visit www.bangoinvestor.com