UK-based mobile money company Monitise has established a strategic partnership with global bank Santander to develop and deploy a series of mobile banking platforms to consumers, writes Patrick Brusnahan.
The partnership follows their previous collaboration on Yapp, the bank’s Spanish mobile venture with CaixaBank and Telefonica, used by 200 businesses.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The first service, the SmartBank app, was launched in the UK this week and aims to ‘transform how people manage their money and spending on the move’. Targeted at students, but available to all Santander customers, the app provides a summary of recent spending and current financial situation.
The apps shows ‘At a Glance’ spending graphics, weekly and monthly spending patterns and itemisation by type and location of expenditure.
Monitise, additionally, has furthered its partnership with IBM and will now connect to IBM hosting facilities. Based in North Carolina, the cloud-based infrastructure will allow Monitise greater ability to serve global processors, banks and mobile network operators from a US-based hub. Monitise will work with IBM data centres around the world according to its expanding customer bases’ needs.
This follows Monitise’s announcement of a global alliance with IBM, in August of this year, to allow Monitise’s technology to be utilised and sold as an IBM cloud-delivered solution in the business-to-business space. A team from Monitise’s UK development and integration business will be transferred to IBM as part of the process.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataBoth announcements came alongside Monitise’s year-end results. The company saw a 31% increase in revenue over the year ending 30 June 2014, rising from £72.8m ($118m) to £95.1m. This is far from its previous prediction that revenue would grow around 50% for the year.
Despite this the company’s operating loss totalled at £31.4m for the year, compared to £19.2m at the same point last year, a rise in total loss of 64%. The higher loss was attributed to investments made in products and sales during the second year as part of Monitise’s strategy to accelerate user growth.
Processed payments and transfers increased by over two-fold and reached $88bn, compared with $40bn at the end of the previous year.
The company expects a 25% growth in revenue by the end of the financial year in 2015, as well as a goal of being profitable by the end of the following year, a goal it has set itself previously and missed.
Its recent losses have been attributed to a faster move to a subscription model, with lower up-front revenue, from product license fees and professional services activities. The acceleration of that shift was announced in March of this year alongside a £109m placing with partner MasterCard.
Ben Green, Head of Innovation, Santander UK said: "We know our customers are increasingly looking to bank and pay on the move, so it is important for us to think creatively about how we can develop an insightful, useful and personalised service for them. SmartBank acts as a true financial companion, providing our customers with an engaging and tailored experience at a time and place that’s right for them."
