Boku 2024 Recap: Business, launches, events, awards & more
Boku has undergone much growth and many changes since 2023. From welcoming a new CEO, to launching our first A2A connections for 谷歌 and other industry-leading merchants, to entering new verticals such as online travel, 2024 has been nothing short of mind-expanding! Keep reading for Boku's recap of a great year.?
Business overview?
From welcoming four new members of our leadership team and hiring 122 new talents around the world, to growing our business through the launches of new connections such as BLIK and UPI, expanding into new verticals (online travel, ticketing, on-demand services) and achieving our strongest revenue growth — 2024 has been long on successes!?
In January, Stuart N. was appointed CEO of Boku, shortly after we welcomed a CPO? Victoria Rodgers , Paul Jarrett as GM of Banking and Settlement, and Rob Whittick , our new CFO.?
Together, the revamped leadership team introduced updated company mission and vision statements, and new values that reflect the path of the company and how we envision Boku developing in the next years.
We celebrated Boku’s 15 anniversary and strong H1 results — with a 30% growth in monthly active users and a 16% increase in TPV, Boku’s record revenue growth so far!?
New launches?
In June, Boku launched its first A2A connection with Google in partnership with BLIK Poland to help Google Play users buy their favorite apps via their preferred local payment method —BLIK!?
We also received full authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a payment aggregator in the country and launched UPI for our global merchants looking to grow in the Indian market.?
In 2024, we were listed in the Federal Reserve Financial Services Showcase, which is a testament to Boku’s recognition as a PSP in the U.S. market for offering global localised payment solutions.?
Additionally, in 2024 we added new LPM connections into our network mix, including airtel Money (Ghana), MoMo from MTN (Ghana), Telecel Ghana (Telecel Cash), Airtel Money (Tanzania), Tigo Pesa (Tanzania), Airtel Money (Uganda), MoMo from MTN UG (Uganda), VietQR (Vietnam), MERPAY LTD (Japan), FPX (Malaysia), QRPH (Philippines), and Virtual Accounts (Indonesia).
Industry-leading events?
In 2024, we expanded our presence at the biggest paytech networking events revolving around payments, risk, fraud and ecommerce. ?
We attended more than 20 events, across all regions — Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and Africa —?and all were filled with insightful conversations among industry experts, as well as meetings with our partners at our own events. Here’s a recap of some of them. ?
The Merchant Risk Council (MRC) events in Las Vegas, Barcelona, Southeast Asia, and Amsterdam
By rejoining the MRC Community last year, we were able to reconnect with payments, risk and fraud professionals around the world.??
The events in Las Vegas and Barcelona were great networking opportunities, while in Southeast Asia and Amsterdam we got the chance to share the stage with our merchants and partners to talk about collaboration across organisations and growing business through data.?
MRC Southeast Asia?
At MRC Southeast Asia, Boku’s Director of Fraud, Laura Carruthers, shared the stage with Andy (Nguyen) T. from Zalopay and Jaycie Zhang from Warner Bros. Discovery. The main takeaway from the session was the need for increased merchant-issuer collaboration, which means sharing more information about the product type with the issuer and PSPs. This can improve operations, reduce fraud, and lead to better results for all parties. ?
Issuers should also proactively communicate their needs to merchants, to help the merchants discover what information issuers find useful, and, ultimately, enhance collaboration.?
MRC Amsterdam?
At the Amsterdam session, Laura shared the stage with Dimitry Bratina from Booking.com and Jussi Lindberg from Trustly in a discussion that touched on successful examples of data enrichment driving business growth, and how new technologies and data can be used to assess risk and fraud, as well as to improve payment optimization. As experts in their fields, they also discussed the regulatory changes that could affect a data-enrichment approach to business growth.
Money 20/20 Asia and Money 20/20 Las Vegas?
Money 20/20 is the center of payment conversations with our partners. At Money 20/20 Asia in Bangkok, Tracy Prandi-Yuen got the chance to talk about cross-border challenges in the panel Payment Pathfinders: How to Conquer Cross-border Challenges, together with Tim Shen from LianLian Global , Tessa W. from Xendit , and Ling Wu from TBCASoft .?
The key challenges to cross-border money movements run from regulatory complexities and compliance to the inequality of national economic security, rising fraud, high fees and the lack of interoperability of a multitude of LPMs across different markets.?
Some of the innovative solutions to these challenges include comprehensive payment licenses, tailored API integration capabilities, and ledger and AI technologies that reduce transactional frictions, remove unnecessary layers, and minimize data leakage.?
We can expect that, in the future, cross-border money movements leverage big data, AI, and cloud computing, evolving into a “boundaryless” payment ecosystem.?
In the Las Vegas edition, Aaron Schneider, MBA , VP of Payments, delivered a panel on unlocking the potential in the emerging markets payments boom, together with Erika Wool from Stripe, Cecilia Tamez from Dandelion Payments, and Anand Natarajan from the Standard Chartered Bank.?
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A seismic shift is underway for payments in emerging markets, driven by government initiatives to enhance financial inclusion and the rapid adoption of local payment methods. In emerging markets, businesses and fintechs are leveraging innovative solutions to facilitate online transactions.?
The main takeaways from this session included ways for companies to adapt to evolving payment preferences while maintaining a seamless customer experience, as well as key payment trends and the importance of forging strategic partnerships within the payments ecosystem.?
Thank you to MRC | Merchant Risk Council and Money20/20 for inviting and hosting Boku and for giving us the opportunity to network and connect with merchants, partners, and issuers. Spreading the latest trends and changes in local payment methods wouldn’t be as enjoyable without you!?
Boku awards and recognitions?
During this year Boku received several mentions, awards and recognitions that serve as a testament to the dedicated efforts of our team to achieve excellence —?both for our merchants and ourselves.
?Thank you to all who made this possible, we are truly grateful for your support!?
Thought leadership content??
?This year we generated and published so much insightful content, from covering global ecommerce payment trends to helping our merchants choose their next LPM connections wisely. Here’s a sampling:?
In partnership with Juniper Research, we launched the 2024 Boku Ecommerce Report.?
We published two white papers with Payment Cards and Mobile: ?
The shift to local payment methods – six recommendations for digital merchants; , and??
Boku was featured in several industry-leading reports: ?
We also launched our Beyond Boundaries LinkedIn newsletter where we discuss current topics and share our company culture. Check it out!?
And so, 2024 was full of accomplishments and changes. As we approach the end of the year, we are working on what’s to come in 2025: new launches, new verticals, more content, and more growth for our merchants and for Boku. ?