US mobile payments start-up Boku has raised an undisclosed investment from Andreeson Horowitz, the firm founded by Netscape co-founders Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz, who will become strategic advisors to the company.
Boku, which launched in June last year, has previously raised £38 million, including $25 million in a funding round in January led by DAG Ventures.
Since launch, the company has developed mobile payment processing relationships with leading game and application developers, including nearly 100% of the top applications for virtual goods and currencies purchased on Facebook. Boku's mobile payment service, Paymo, is enabled across over 200 carriers worldwide in more than 60 countries.
Separately, the company has hired two seasoned veterans of the mobile industry, David Yoo, former SVP and chief product officer at AT&T Interactive, and Kevin Grant, former VP of sales for MobiTV and SBC's as SVP of strategy and SVP of sales, respectively. The two new execs will be charged with working with mobile carriers to create new partnerships and bring down fees to capitalise on opportunities in the growing mobile payments space.
Says Yoo: "Mobile payments for goods and services, be they virtual, digital or physical are still in the early stages of growth. Carriers have a tremendous opportunity to generate revenue and increase Arpu as fees come down."