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(Sharecast News) - Bango shares slumped on Monday despite the Cambridge-based digital payments and subscription bundling group reporting higher revenue and sharply improved first-half earnings, as investors appeared unimpressed by slowing transactional growth and rising debt.
Revenue for the six months ended 30 June rose 5% to $25.2m from $24.1m a year earlier, driven by a 15% increase in Digital Vending Machine (DVM) and one-off revenue to $8.9m.
Annual recurring revenue climbed 20% to $15.6m, while adjusted EBITDA surged 66% to $6.7m.
Bango narrowed its net loss to $3.2m from $4.2m and lifted its gross margin to 84.3% from 80.8%.
However, transactional revenue was flat at $16.4m, which the company said reflected solid growth in core routes offset by volatility in a small number of high-cost DOCOMO Digital routes.
Net debt rose to $7.3m from $5.1m as the group tapped enhanced facilities from NHN and a $15m NatWest revolving credit line to bolster its balance sheet.
The number of active subscriptions managed via the DVM doubled year-on-year to 19.2 million, with new customer wins including Korea Telecom, a first telco customer in Japan, and additional US operators, bringing adoption among the US top-eight telcos to six.
Bango also launched its fully integrated Super Bundling platform during the period, with US cable operator Altice becoming the first to use its new DVM customer interface.
Post period-end, it signed partnerships with Dish TV and its Sling TV brand, Indonesia's Telkomsel, and MTN in Africa, its first DVM customer on the continent.
"Bango has delivered a strong first half in 2025, making significant progress towards becoming the place where people subscribe," said chief executive Paul Larbey.
"Adjusted EBITDA grew by 66% and annual recurring revenue increased 20% year-on-year. The Digital Vending Machine continues to gain momentum, managing over 19 million active subscriptions at the end of June - twice the number at the same point last year."
He added that with the migration from the Frankfurt data centre complete, the integration of DOCOMO Digital was now finished.
"Following the efficiency savings delivered this year, Bango is well positioned for significant cash generation in 2026. Bango is well positioned to deliver scalable, profitable growth and to capture the expanding global opportunity in subscription bundling."
At 1004 BST, shares in Bango were down 14.47% at 100.5p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.