(Alliance News) - Mobile payments firm Boku Inc on Tuesday said it will need a "good" second half in order to meet full year guidance.
For the first half of 2019, Boku's revenue surged 39% to USD23.5 million, though the pretax loss did widen to USD2.5 million from USD558,000, due mainly to greater share option expenses.
Total payment volumes grew 47% to USD2.3 billion, and monthly active users rose 48% to 15.3 million. Billable identity transactions doubled to 141 million.
For 2019, Boku has guided for USD52 million in revenue, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation growth of 45% to 50%. Interim adjusted Ebitda was USD4.3 million, meaning Boku is slightly less than halfway to both targets.
"There's no question we need a good second half in order to deliver; we anticipate one and thus leave our guidance unchanged," said Chief Executive Jon Prideaux.
The firm also wants gross margins in the Payments unit of 93%, and in Identity of 43%, and Prideaux said the firm is ahead of target on both counts.
He continued: "Within Payments we expect a stronger second half driven by the game release schedule, the traditional Christmas peak and a spate of new connections. We now have a pipeline of more than 250 deployments, moderated by some extended promotional periods by some customers. In Identity, we expect the investment that we have made in sales resource to start to pay off and also to start generating more non-US revenue as international connections become activated.
"Looking ahead to 2020, the strong pipeline in both Identity and Payments give me confidence in the long-term health of the business."
Boku shares were 5.4% higher on Tuesday morning in London at a price of 107.50 pence each.
Boku (BOKU)