VMob releases half-year results as it chases international growth

NZAX-listed mobile voucher developer VMob Group widened its first half loss as it chased international scale and growth.

The company says the last six months has continued to be a period of growth and development, highlighted by a number of new commercial agreements, the most significant of which was the securing of a contract with McDonald’s Japan.

“VMob’s mission is to use mobile to bring shoppers back into stores and through our work during the period we have continued to prove VMob’s ability to achieve this on a global scale,” the company says in an announcement.

For the six month period ended 30 September 2014, operating revenue grew 283% over the same period last year, to $502k. During this period, VMob has continued to invest in its people and the development of its SaaS platform to deliver against its technology roadmap.

“This ongoing investment will enable the scalability and features required to take advantage of the growing global demand for mobile marketing by VMob’s global clients”.

VMob says the major highlight during the period was the signing of a three-year contract with McDonald’s Japan to provide VMob’s mobile marketing platform to McDonald’s 3,200 restaurants in Japan. “This was a fantastic result for the company following a rigorous RFP process against international competition”.

Japan is the second largest market outside of the United States for McDonald’s. Deployment of this project is currently under way and is expected to be live in early 2015.

VMob has continued to build its global presence, opening offices in London and New York and establishing wholly owned subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. Personnel have been employed in the United Kingdom and Japan and recruitment is under way in the United States for a VP Sales to further accelerate the development of these markets.

Expansion into the United States has accelerated to take full advantage of local opportunities and the strong partnership with Microsoft, which will see the technology multinational support VMob in the United States and other markets.

The United States presents a key market opportunity for VMob. The appetite for mobile marketing solutions in the United States has increased at a significant rate with every top 100 retailer in the United States deploying a mobile application, compared to about 40% only two years ago.

Having a presence in the United States will also allow VMob to take full advantage of the increasing number of integration opportunities with leading SaaS marketing, CRM and ERP systems such as Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and Salesforce, putting the business in a strong position to build on relationships with these North American headquartered companies.

Locally, VMob was successful in securing contracts with Auckland’s Heart of the City powering their “Where Next” mobile application, and Loyalty New Zealand.

VMob has partnered with Loyalty New Zealand to provide mobile loyalty capability to the existing Fly Buys coalition loyalty program. Fly Buys is the world’s most successful coalition loyalty programem with 74% of New Zealand households active and 52% of the population holding a Fly Buys loyalty card.

VMob continues to build out its technology platform to address the needs of large scale global organisations while also developing more highly packaged versions of its offering for smaller businesses looking to deploy rapidly and at a lower cost.

VMob was the runner-up in the global “Winning with Azure Contest” for cloud-based technology solutions. The “Winning with Azure Contest” recognises the best solutions in market that incorporate Microsoft Azure technology to alleviate customer pain-points or solve a related business problem.

VMob is attracting significant international attention for its mobile marketing platform from some of the largest brands on the planet. The company has also developed a close working relationship with Microsoft in the United States, which is enabling access to many large prospects at senior levels.

In order to pursue these opportunities, the Company’s CEO has re-located to the United States to lead business development activities in that market.