BOKU, Inc.announced its payments service for global consumers to make online purchases of digital and virtual goods with their mobile phones. The claim they are creating a new standard for the mobile, by bringing bank-grade mobile payments to the web.
The service allows customers to pay for goods both real and virtual by giving their phone number.
The acquired Paymo and mobillcash. The received venture capital funding.
"We're very excited about the future of BOKU -- with Mobillcash's European success, Paymo's international reach, and stellar additions to the management team, the company is now very well positioned to lead the mobile payments market," stated Danny Rimer, Partner at Index Ventures.
BOKU's acquisitions of Paymo and the Mobillcash's payments give them 1.6 billion potential customers in 50+ countries on 170 mobile operators.
The market for online payments via mobile is being driven by the rapid, global growth of social networks, virtual goods and games, the popularity of mobile applications, and the large number of unbanked customers who have access to mobile phones, but not credit cards or bank accounts: With over 1 billion applications served, the iPhone has changed how people use and relate to their phones; The virtual goods and gaming market is worth $8 billion today and growing; On Facebook, 200 million users can now access 135 thousand virtual applications and games; The gap between the banked and underbanked is large, with 4 billion mobile phones but only 2 billion bank accounts worldwide.