Boku announced that it has secured $13.75 million in further venture funding to expand carrier billing across numerous carrier connections in developed and emerging markets around the globe. The funding will allow Boku to build and activate new waves of carrier connections across the globe, providing millions of new cell phone subscribers to fuel Boku’s growth.
Several of Boku’s existing venture investors from Silicon Valley have followed on with their investments in Boku, including Khosla Ventures, Benchmark Capital, NEA, Index Ventures and DAG Ventures, in addition to other new and existing investors in the UK, US and Asia. This new portion of venture funding, which was oversubscribed from Boku’s initial financing plans, brings the total amount Boku has raised to $91 million since its founding in 2009.
Recently, Microsoft has expanded its agreement with Boku to launch carrier billing as a payment option for all Windows Store purchases made on Windows 10 devices in the UK, through a partnership with O2, and Italy, through a partnership with Wind, starting on Aug 11th.This expansion comes quick on the heels of Microsoft and Boku launching in other key developed markets, including US, Germany and Switzerland.
David Weiden, Partner at Khosla Ventures
Early on we saw an opportunity with Boku to provide a digital payment solution for the hundreds of millions of people who don’t have access to bank cards or credit cards. Carrier billing has now moved beyond this to become the preferred alternative payment method for many of the world’s largest merchants.
Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku
Carrier billing is evolving from being a niche product for phone-centric content into a mainstream payment method used by the world’s major brands for all types of digital products.
