Bango raises $10M to expand mobile payments to new markets

Bango has raised $10.2 million in new funding earmarked to expand its mobile Web payments platform into the emerging markets segment. Bango, which trades on the London Stock Exchange, placed 3.25 million new ordinary shares priced at $3.15, noting the oversubscribed offering attracted both new and existing institutional investors.

Bango's one-click operator billing platform enables consumers to charge mobile applications and premium digital content directly their monthly wireless account, eliminating the need for premium SMS messages or entering credit card information. Last year, the firm said its payments model delivers an average purchase conversion rate of 77 percent, compared to 40 percent across rival mobile commerce solutions.

Bango maintains mobile billing partnerships with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Play, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Blackberry (NASDAQ:BBRY) World and Opera Mobile Store, among others. Bango also has announced an agreement to provide payment services to Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and offers support for MasterCard's PayPass mobile wallet.

Last month, Bango inked a global partnership with Telefónica and plans to pursue other additional international agreements in the months ahead. "We believe emerging markets represent an exciting growth opportunity for us and are seeing increasing interest from key customers in these areas, in particular in Brazil, Latin America, India and other parts of Asia," said Bango CEO Ray Anderson.

For more:
- read this release

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