I have been looking at these guys since they began raising obscene amounts of money for what to me seemed like a repackaging of an old story - good for them.
Boku hit the streets with a $13m to primarily go on an acquisition spree (buying Paymo, Mobillcash etc.)
Zong raised $15m post a spin out - primarily to expand (into as many as 2 countries per month)
Obviously these guys have since then raised more money.
Quite frankly I was a little suprised, these guys are nothing but mblox, openmarket, singlepoint, Sybase365 etc. repacked in a different color palette primarily in striking or earth tones. The busness is Premium Rated SMS - PSMS. Which is a way to use a cell phone number as the primary account for purchases and then have the customers pay on their postpaid mobile bill at the end of the month. Same way we where buying ringtones for $3.99 by sending a text to a 5 digit phone number.
Saying that in PSMS I need $15m to expand into 2 markets monthly seems like a stretch to me - the wireless operators have these services already exposed and ready to roll out. Granted the Bong's of the world need to position their services with the operators, but thats called salesman ship, somewhat similar to when they convinced the VC's to drop 10's of millions. No doubt they are good at that. Lets see if they can convince Google or Apple to spend 100's of millions buying them out, I will keep my fingers crossed for them.
I know that the Bong's are looking to pivot into other payments verticals and via other integrations, and so they should, digital sales wasn't sustainable 10 years ago and it wont be today.
Thats said I am totally impressed with their ability to raise funds - good on you.
No comments:
Post a Comment