Mobile money specialist Monitise has announced a further integration between itself and computing giant IBM.
The two companies have announced a "global digital commerce and resourcing alliance" building on an earlier partnership announced in July which was aimed at furthering the reach of IBM’s MobileFirst mobile commerce tools.
The new partnership will include the movement of around 20% of Monitise’s Professional Services department, currently overseeing development and integration, giving the company more of a chance to handle larger custom projects around the world.
Going forward, the deal also means that Monitise’s products and services will be enabled, hosted and sold as an IBM cloud-delivered solution in the global business-to-business space, providing a major boost to the company’s goal of signing up 200m users for MobileFirst by 2018.
"Today’s announcement marks a new milestone in delivering an industry-leading Mobile Money partnership, establishing IBM and Monitise as a global powerhouse," said Monitise CEO Alastair Lukies.
"Together, we are in an unrivalled position to enable banks and other leading businesses to build on mobile banking and payments capabilities to tap into the growing digital commerce opportunity."
Shares in Monitise, which has around 28m registered users worldwide, and oversaw $71bn of transactions last year, rose 14% this morning following the news.
"Our deepening collaboration with Monitise, our strong cultural fit and shared vision for a multi-channel future, ensures that we are perfectly positioned to help our clients take full advantage of the mobile opportunity," said Bridget van Kralingen, IBM’s senior vice president of global business services.
