Boku, Inc. provides a mobile payments platform headquartered in San Francisco, CA, enabling consumers to pay for goods and services using their mobile phone number, with purchases billed to a consumer's mobile network operator bill. This form of mobile payment, also referred to as carrier billing, allows unbanked consumers who may have a mobile phone, but no credit card or traditional bank account, to make purchases online, as well as banked customers who simply find carrier billing a simpler way to transact. The majority of transactions processed through Boku carrier billing are for digital and virtual goods and services, including music streaming, online video, digital subscription services, mobile deviceapp stores, social and free-to-play games, virtual goods, social networks and other online experiences. Boku focuses on making the mobile phone number a viable payment option not only for virtual goods, but for digital goods and physical goods.
History
Originally called Vidicom Ltd, and founded in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, U.K. in 2003 by Glyn Smith, Thomas Kirk and original angel investors Dr Steven Gillam, Philip Meakin and Chris Harris. A small number of investors joined before Vidicom Ltd was convinced by non exec board Chairman Mark Berntstein to seek funding from venture capitalists in Silicon Valley for its application "Mobillcash". Vidicom successfully secured funding from Khosla Ventures and Index Ventures Marc Britto and Ron Hirson's services were secured and Vidicom Ltd incorporated Boku inc as a Delaware company in 2009 and reestablished itself as Boku Inc. Boku launched in the US in 2009 with the internal acquisition of Mobilcash and new acquisition of Paymo – a provider in the mobile payments industry – as well as US$13 million in investment from venture capital firms. A year later, Boku added US$25 million in a series C round, led by DAG Ventures. In 2012, Boku raised another US$35 million round to be used to continue building out its payments business globally, led by NEA and existing venture capital investors. The last round, US$13.75 million was completed in 2016 and led by a consortium of UK investors and GMO Payment Gateway to fund carrier connections for global expansion. In total, Boku has raised more than $91M in venture capital funding from Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, DAG Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Telefónica, and GMO Payment Gateway. Boku went public at the London Stock exchange on November 20, 2017 with a valuation of 125 GBP Million.
Expansion
Boku is connected to more than 173 carriers and has launched in 50+ markets offering a bank grade payment system to the largest global companies. In November 2013, Boku announced the acquisition of Qubecell, India's largest aggregator in carrier billing to grow India as its engineering and technology hub. In 2015, Boku acquired Mobileview to strengthen its footprint in Italy, and Germany-based Mopay, one of its biggest competitors. As of September 2016, Boku has offices in San Francisco, US, London, UK, Singapore and several other countries.
Boku provides businesses with the ability to put charges on end users’ phone bill. While the original payment panel product is still in place, Boku has expanded its capabilities to credit card like functionalities like charge and refund to enable cross platform purchases. Enhanced features, such as phone on file or header enrichment, offer consumers and merchants a more convenient way to pay. Boku also offers a subscription product, which gives merchants greater control and flexibility compared to existing market solutions.
Recognition and awards
In 2011, Mobile Trax awarded Boku their Mobility Award. In 2011 and 2013, Forbes selected Boku for their 25 most promising companies in America list. In 2014, Boku won the “Best Alternative Payments” award at 2014 Payment Awards
