Boku, a global mobile payment solutions provider, has reported its unaudited interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2023. The company saw a 26% increase in revenues to $38.2 million, driven by higher transaction volumes from major global merchants. Revenues from Local Payment Methods (LPMs) increased by 350% to $7.2 million, following the launch of 15 new LPMs and increasing adoption by key merchants. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 28% to $12.2 million, while group profit after tax was $2.3 million. The company's cash balances were $113.9 million at the end of June 2023, up from $67.8 million in June 2022. Boku is debt-free.
In terms of operational highlights, Boku experienced significant growth in users and payment volume during the first half of the year. Monthly active users increased by 32% to 61.2 million, and 32.7 million new users made their first payment or bundling transaction with Boku. Total Payment Volume (TPV) increased by 16% to $5.0 billion. The growth was driven by the strong performance of Local Payment Methods, with the total number of LPMs connected to the mobile-first network increasing to 40 connections in 17 countries. The number of eWallets and Account to Account (A2A) solutions increased by 122% to over 4.7 million in June 2023, compared to the same month in 2022. New users of LPMs increased by over 100% to 6.3 million in the first half of 2023.
Boku also saw an increase in its average take rate, which rose to 0.76% in H1 2023 from 0.70% in H1 2022, primarily due to higher take rates from eWallets. The company launched almost 50 new services for Direct Carrier Billing (DCB), eWallets, and A2A in the first half of the year, with existing and new merchants including Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Sony, Spotify, Sky, and Tencent. Most of Boku's biggest merchants now use the company for LPMs as well as DCB.
Jon Prideaux, Boku's CEO, expressed his satisfaction with the company's performance and stated that all parts of the business are performing well. He also mentioned that the strong trading conditions have led the board to expect the company's performance for the full year to be slightly ahead of previous expectations. Prideaux will retire as CEO on December 31, 2023, and Stuart Neal, former CFO of Boku, will take over as CEO from January 1, 2024.