Monitise continues growth with new Mobile Money partnership and further business wins

Leading global mobile payment specialist Monitise has said it is seeing ‘continued momentum’ across its global markets, following the conclusion of a major Mobile Money contract alongside a number of new business wins.

The contract, with an unnamed UK bank and financial services company, will see Monitise enter into a five-year partnership to design, build and manage new digital payments services based on its Mobile Money technology with a contract value of ‘several million pounds’.

The partnership will also include provisions for revenue-sharing arising from retail offers generated through Monitise’s extensive mobile commerce network.

Founded in 2003 by 2007 Young Gun Alastair Lukies, Monitise provides a technology platform used by banks, retailers and mobile networks to allow users to manage bank accounts and money transfers on a mobile device.

Since launch it has grown to become one of the largest mobile money specialists in the world, accounting for $50bn of transfers annually – through 24 million users – and generating revenues of £70m in 2013.

The new five-year UK contract is set to increase gross margins by 70% and revenues by 50% to June 2014, alongside a number of other deals in global markets.

As well as a renewal and extension of an existing commercial contract with another leading financial institution, Monitise has announced increased interest in its technology in Asia following the launch of its Chinese-language service.

In Europe, the firm says it is finalising details to provide a new multi-language mobile point of sale service for a Nordic bank’s small business and merchant consumers.

Commenting on the five-year Mobile Money deal, Lee Cameron, chief commercial officer at Monitise, said: “We are delighted to be supporting more leading financial services companies in developing and delivering Mobile Money services for their customers.

“Collaborations like this show the value created by building a global ecosystem of partners and clients that can leverage our bank-grade Bank Anywhere, Pay Anyone and Buy Anything technology in ways that help them unlock the commercial benefits of mobile technology.”

Founder and Monitise chief executive Alastair Lukies: “Demand for Mobile Money services continues to grow rapidly and we are seeing increasing interest in our technology and services from leading players in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

“There is no doubt in our minds that 2014 and 2015 will see an intensifying battle as players position themselves to control and own the business infrastructure underpinning Mobile Money technology.

“Monitise will continue to invest strategically to ensure that the ecosystem is ideally balanced between interoperability, security and convenience and that consumers benefit from the innovation being created in an inherently trustworthy way.”