Bango lays foundation for a strong 2024 with upsurge in customers
The share price soared almost 17p and 16 per cent to 124.05p - a welcome increase - a couple of hours after the UK market opened and a buoyant forecast from CEO Paul Larbey.
Transactional revenue was up 79 per cent to $32.7 million and total revenue 62 per cent higher to $46.1m; ARR was 77 per cent ahead to $8.8m but Bango still lost substantially more - $8.8m up from $2.1m. Also, net cash of $12.7m became debt of $3.9m.
On the significant upside, Bango secured nine new Digital Vending Machine® (‘DVM’) licence customers for a total 18 at the end of 2023. Bango is now used by three of the top five US telcos and the company saw 33 new subscription content providers added to the DVM, taking the total to 93 at the end of 2023.
Larbey said the DVM sales opportunity funnel was 7x larger in December 2023 versus December 2022.
A DVM consumer interface was released, enabling telcos to launch their DVM faster and providing Bango with more precious consumer behaviour data. Overall, Larbey said Bango had delivered "a strong first quarter, sustaining good momentum and growing in-line with the plan. We reiterate our guidance for the full year."
2024 started by putting a 'Bang' in Bango with revenue in Q1 growing by over 20 per cent from Q1 2023.
One leading European telco (one of the early DVM customers) extended its DVM contract for a further three years, guaranteeing at least a $1.5m haul.
Larbey said: "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.
“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 per cent 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 realised. 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 four 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.”
