Fonix

Fonix’s innovation processes £12.9m for BBC Children in Need’s 2018 Appeal via text donations

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

12th December 2018, London – Fonix, the mobile payments and messaging specialist, has announced today that it processed £12.9 million in mobile donations for BBC Children in Need.

BBC Children in Need is the BBC’s UK charity, raising money for disadvantaged children and young people around the country. Fonix has worked with the charity since 2014, providing a mobile payment mechanic which allows the public to donate via SMS, seamlessly charging the costs to their mobile phone bills.

This year, Fonix and BBC Children in Need collaborated to introduce the first ever £30 price point (alongside the traditional price points of £20, £10 and £5). This was introduced for the Children in Need Rocks concert with great success, and implemented on the live annual Appeal Show which aired on 16th November.

BBC Children in Need also ran multiple text-to-donate competitions for the first time, including the chance to see Bruce Springsteen on Broadway which featured on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show. A one-off voluntary donation of £10 was made to BBC Children in Need, but the public were able to opt out by replying CANCEL to their entry confirmation text within 60 minutes.

Clare Charles, Director of Media and Charity for Fonix, commented “We’re proud to have worked with BBC Children in Need this year. Since 2014 we’ve worked with the charity to refine and improve the mobile donation process.

“It’s clear that the public are willing to donate larger amounts via text-to-donate, and allowing them to do this by introducing the £30 price point has been great for raising money for such a good cause.”

Karen Bass, Chief Operating Officer at BBC Children in Need said “Mobile is such an important channel for maximising donations, helping us to raise as much money as possible to support disadvantaged children and young people around the UK. Donating by text is a quick and simple way for people to help change young lives. We’re grateful to Fonix for enabling this and to all of our generous supporters whose donations will go on to make such a difference.”

Liz Ayto Recognised as Top 100 BAME Leader in Tech

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Liz Ayto, Head of Finance of Fonix, has today been announced as one of the top 100 most influential Black, Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) leaders in the UK tech sector. The list, produced by board appointments firm Inclusive Boards, will be released today at the House of Commons as part of the official launch of the Inclusive Tech Alliance.

The Alliance has been set up in response to new research by Inclusive Boards that will show the sector is significantly lagging behind others on diversity within senior leadership. The founder of the Inclusive Tech Alliance (ITA), Samuel Kasumu, who is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Race Disparity Advisory Board said:

“Technology is increasingly playing an important role in driving our economy and there is a great need to ensure that everyone can fully participate in the jobs and opportunities technology brings. Liz Ayto and others featured in this list today are role models that will inspire the next generation, and hopefully help to improve diversity within the sector.”

Liz’s listing is testament to the fantastic work that she does for Fonix, Grabyo Limited and Grabyo Inc. In particular, her nomination focused upon her role within senior management teams and her invaluable experience and insight when it comes to shaping strategy. Liz also manages other employees in the Fonix and Grabyo finance teams, and has shown impressive leadership and dedication to their personal development.

Liz commented:

“It’s a privilege to be recognised for the work that I do for Fonix and Grabyo, and it’s also brilliant to be able to represent BAME leaders in tech. Inclusive Boards does such important work to promote diversity in the workplace, and this is can only benefit the technology sector when it comes to attracting the best leaders and creating the fairest working environments.”

Those featured in the top 100 include senior leaders from Facebook, LinkedIn, IBM, Twitter and financial services firm EY. Judges include Tim Sawyer CBE (COO, Innovate UK), Sandra Kerr OBE (Race Equality Director, Business in the Community), and Catherine Muirden (Director of HR, Co-Op Foods).

Fonix launches CRM Automation: a personalised consumer experience with messaging campaigns

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Today, Fonix announced the launch of CRM Automation: a set of customer engagement automation tools for its clients to deliver mobile interactive services.

Some of the UK’s largest radio and TV broadcasters work with Fonix to deliver mobile interactive services to their audiences, with messaging used as highly effective channel for generating audience engagement.

Fonix’s platform enables its clients to configure predefined campaign start and end times, cost per mobile interaction and more. Now, Fonix has added a set of new functionalities to enable broadcasters to provide a more tailored experience for audiences when creating marketing communications, to maximise engagement and effectiveness for those campaigns.

Clients will be able to schedule automated responses at predefined times for users based on their previous interactions with a campaign, meaning that clients will be able to target individuals uniquely with relevant message content in a timely manner and within sociable hours driving both optimal experience for users and engagement for the brands.

CEO of Fonix, Rob Weisz commented: “This is such an exciting development for Fonix product suite. CRM Automation will allow for more targeted campaigns, providing those that love engaging with services an experience that is focussed upon their interaction habits. It will drive engagement and crucially, help our clients to avoid sending unwanted messages to their audiences.

“The functionality has a strong focus upon upholding a fantastic consumer experience, which is so important to Fonix and those that we work with. We’re excited to see the impact that this has upon our clients and to hear about the results that this has for their consumers!”

 

Fonix listed in FT Future 100 UK as recognition for its disruptive mobile technology

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Fonix has announced today that it has been listed in the FT  Future 100, a compilation of British companies making an impact either on society or their industry.

This is the first year that the FT Future 100 has run and to make it on to the list, companies had to excel in one of four categories: boosting diversity, consistent growth, disruption and those seeking to make a positive impact via their environmental, social and governance policies (ESG policies).

Fonix received recognition for its dedication to disruption. In this category, judges took into account measures such as research and development spending as a proportion of revenue, as well as the company’s own pitch as a disrupter. Fonix also received recognition for its consistent revenue growth, which is based upon its two consecutive listings in the FT 1000.

CEO of Fonix, Rob Weisz commented “We’re absolutely thrilled to have been listed in the FT Future 100, as we know what a prestigious listing this is. Fonix is at the heart of driving the mobile payments space in the UK – to be recognised for our disruptive technology really rubber stamps this!

“The team have worked incredibly hard to get us to where we are today and being listed in the FT Future 100 is testament to this effort. They are all so dedicated to the Fonix journey and their passion for disruptive tech is what drives us forward. This is such an exciting time for Fonix and we can’t wait to see what happens next!”

You can view the full FT Future 100 UK list here.

Fonix partners with OMG to bring society lotteries into the 21st Century

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

 

22nd August 2018, London – Fonix, the mobile payments and messaging specialist, today announced that it has partnered with Open Mobile Global to provide a mobile operator billing mechanic for its clients that run society lotteries.

Fonix and OMG will be launching society lotteries that operate with a mobile payment mechanic for the very first time with The Alzheimer’s Society.

Society lotteries are run by charities, with the proceeds going to charitable causes. Traditionally, participants have entered into lotteries by purchasing a paper ticket, and this evolved over the years to encompass credit and debit card payments.

The Fonix and OMG partnership brings society lotteries into the 21st century and will allow consumers to enter these lotteries simply by sending an SMS to the service. This removes the need for entering banking details as only the mobile number is required to take the payment.

Simon King, Head of Product Development at OMG said of the partnership “We’ve worked with Fonix to deliver SMS donations for clients with great success, and since enabling society lotteries to use phone payment has been approved by the Payment Service Authority, it was a natural progression to collaborate with Fonix on this and add mobile payments to the mix.

“We know there’s a demand for this sort of service, with some society lotteries having proceeds in excess of £250,000 in any one year. Introducing mobile payments will allow our clients to meet their fundraising goals more readily.”

Clare Charles, Account Director of Fonix comments, “We love making it easier for consumers to donate to charities, and society lotteries provide a really exciting opportunity for both OMG and Fonix.”

Mobile donations have been hugely popular amongst our charity clients and donors. As a payment mechanic, it’s easy, convenient and secure –  supporters can have absolute confidence in it. We can’t wait to see the results that running mobile operator billing amongst OMG’s client base for society lotteries brings.”