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A message from our CEO
Boku is a fast growing, global organisation who supports and partners with some of the world’s leading brands. Our values are core to everything that we do and we take great efforts to ensure that our values are aligned to those of our key stakeholders. We are, by design, localised and diverse as an organisation, something that has underpinned our success to date. We have employees from diverse backgrounds based in around 30 countries, including China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, India, UAE, Nigeria, Kenya, Germany, Ireland, Colombia, Brazil, UK and US.
Getting the culture right in such a diverse and globally dispersed organisation is of upmost importance and getting our ESG agenda right is a key part of delivering that. We have been investing heavily over recent years to grow our compliance and governance teams, adding expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) and most recently employing our very first group Chief People Officer.
We run DEI groups from within the business which include executive sponsorship. Tracking important metrics, such as gender pay gap are important embedded KPIs for the business.
Whilst we do not manufacture or run emission-generating machinery, and we operate a hybrid working model, where employees enjoy the flexibility to work remotely, we do acknowledge our responsibilities as global citizens and are consequently looking for new ways to optimize our carbon footprint.
We encourage social participation from our employees and our management team leads by example through community engagement experiences, such as packing food parcels for homeless people in San Francisco, to supporting an orphanage for street kids in Mumbai, to offering internships and mentoring to teenagers from inner city London. We will continue to engage in those places where we do business around the world.
We recognise that this work is never done and will therefore strive to do far more than the mere basics to meet our statutory and regulatory obligations.
Mission – Boku is building the world’s best network of localised payment solutions.
Vision – Boku is helping to enable borderless commerce by offering better payment choice.
| FY 23 Highlights | FY 24 Objectives |
| Hired our first dedicated independent DEI resource in FY 23 | To conduct full review of current reporting procedures and prepare Scope 3 reporting capabilities |
| New initiative for senior leadership team to visit offices on quarterly basis | To identify areas for improvement within Boku and build on these for years to come |
| 4% improvement on gender diversity within Boku | To increase employee take up of ‘make a difference’ days and give back further to our local communities |
| External consultant identified to undertake Board effectiveness review in FY 24 | To build on this improvement and identify areas for further growth. With that in mind, we recruited our first Chief People Officer in 2024 who will own gender diversity as a key focus area. |
Environmental
Creating a more robust framework
Playing our part in the fight against climate change is important to us and we want to show that sustainability and climate-related measures are not just tick box exercises required by laws and regulations, but important principles guiding our strategy. We are in a process of developing our understanding and our reporting capabilities and we understand that our current programme of voluntary reporting on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions is not enough. We are committed to reporting on Scope 3 emissions in due course and taking the appropriate reduction and offsetting initiatives in order to reduce our impact on the planet.
To assist us with our goals we have engaged with an external consultancy firm to review our existing reporting processes and help us build out our Scope 3 reporting capabilities. We have sought external help in order to ensure that our reported figures are as accurate and representative as possible. Our aim is to use this data to identify and assess the most applicable and relevant emission reduction and offsetting initiatives for us and to develop a robust sustainability programme that all of us at Boku truly believe in.
GHG emissions
Since 2021, we have been measuring and reporting on energy usage across each of our offices. To demonstrate our commitment to our ESG Framework and transparency, we have opted to report on our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, despite not currently being subject to the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) or Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures requirements.
Scope 1
The Scope 1 figures capture our refrigerant emissions only, which were calculated using the screening method, a method whereby an organisation multiplies the refrigerant amount by an emission factor, based on the specific type of equipment and emission event, to determine the operating emissions of our equipment.
Scope 2
The Scope 2 figures capture emissions from purchased electricity and heat, which were calculated using location-based reporting methods.
- The Scope 2 figures for Germany were calculated using an energy consumption estimate provided by the landlord for our office building in Munich.
- The Scope 2 figures for USA were calculated using the area method. This allows users to estimate their energy use based on their share of the building’s floor space and total energy consumption, as individual energy consumption data was not available.
- The Scope 2 figures for Estonia, UK and India were calculated using monthly bills with individual usage data from the building landlords (Estonia and UK) and energy providers (India).
Several of our offices are supplied by energy tariffs which are either powered wholly or partly by renewable sources. Our London and Munich offices are supplied by a 100% renewable energy tariff. Our offices are also supplied with reusable tableware and drinkware to reduce wastage, and Boku operates on a largely paperless basis in order to further reduce waste. In an effort to further reduce contributory carbon emissions, Boku is committed to working with partners and suppliers to also encourage reduced carbon footprints and intend to further engage with them in order to identify how we can further work together to reduce our impact on the planet.
| UK | Estonia | USA | India | Germany | Total | |||||||
| Energy Consumption (tCO2e) | FY 22 | FY 23 | FY 22 | FY 23 | FY 22 | FY 23 | FY 22 | FY 23 | FY 22 | FY 23 | FY 22 | FY 23 |
| Scope 1 | 0.40 | 0.40 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.19 | 0.19 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.59 | 0.59 |
| Scope 2 | 11.93 | 6.30 | 79.09 | 68.11 | 14.90 | 29.82 | 37.69 | 49.67 | 1.95 | 0.62 | 145.56 | 154.52 |
| Total | 12.33 | 6.70 | 79.09 | 68.11 | 14.90 | 29.82 | 37.88 | 49.85 | 1.95 | 0.62 | 146.15 | 155.11 |
| Intensity Ratio (tCO2e per $m group revenue) | UK | Estonia | USA | India | Germany | Total | ||||||
| Scope 1 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Scope 2 | 0.19 | 0.08 | 1.24 | 0.83 | 0.23 | 0.36 | 0.59 | 0.60 | 0.03 | 0.01 | 2.28 | 1.87 |
| Total | 0.19 | 0.08 | 1.24 | 0.83 | 0.23 | 0.36 | 0.59 | 0.60 | 0.03 | 0.01 | 2.29 | 1.88 |
The Scope 2 emissions across our UK and Germany offices were reduced to 0 tCO2e for the year due to the use of renewable energy at both offices. Energy usage across our Estonian and Indian offices were higher than that of our other locations due primarily to larger office spaces with a higher percentage of employees electing to work from the office. Energy emissions at our San Francisco office doubled in the year, however, the emissions were calculated using the area method and the increased usage may not be wholly attributable to our increased individual usage.
Social
We strongly believe that our people are what makes Boku great. Fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace is crucial for our success.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Boku
One of our core values is ‘collaborate.’ To bring this value into practice, we have created a culture in which our employees feel empowered and safe to be themselves. We are proud of our openness to learn from and about new cultures, we train our employees on cultural awareness, and we share cultural experiences through events. These events vary for each location, but include celebrating local holidays, alongside hosting culinary showcases and issuing a quarterly firm-wide diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) Newsletter.
We aim to always empower our employees to raise and discuss matters in a supportive environment. We provide forums for our employees to do this through anonymous surveys as well as providing opportunities for them to address any issue openly and directly to our senior management during our monthly all-hands meetings. Boku operates with a flat hierarchical structure and an open door policy for employees to approach and discuss topics with our executive management team. We believe that the positive impact from this is reflected in our open communication structures and the frequent engagement from employees on a regular basis.
To safeguard our values and the inclusive culture we promote, Boku established a DEI Committee in 2020. The committee plays an important role in bringing awareness to all DEI-related matters. Through its quarterly newsletter, the DEI committee helps to generate more awareness towards DEI matters amongst all Boku employees. In 2023, several initiatives were organised across our Group, including the following highlights:
- Mental Health Week for all main offices, including various socials, internal talks and activities aimed at creating awareness of the importance of our mental health and providing a forum for discussion about mental health.
- Wide variety of cultural events aimed at fostering inclusion and awareness.
- Training sessions on cultural awareness and importance of open communication within a global team.
- A panel discussion held for all our employees that includes some of our merchants as guest speakers on the value of culture and leadership.
- A full time DEI resource hired with the focus of developing a DEI strategy for the Group.
Local & Global Events
Local and global events play a significant role in the way we foster DEI throughout the Group. We consider these events to be our most valuable tool in creating a feeling of belonging and togetherness amongst our employees. We are aware of the important role that belonging has in fostering a diverse, inclusive, collaborative, and innovative workforce. Additionally, we have found that an increased sense of belonging and togetherness can create a better work-life balance for all of our employees and contribute to mental wellbeing.
Since several of our employees work fully remotely, we also consciously organise virtual events that can be attended by all our employees globally. During the year, we also provide remote employees with the opportunity to participate physically in certain events held at our offices and organise travel and accommodation for those wishing to attend.
On a quarterly basis, our senior leadership team, including our Executive Directors, host an offsite at a different office location to give our employees across the globe an opportunity to meet and consult with the senior leadership team in person, increasing the sense of belonging and togetherness that we aim to promote.
Flexibility at work
Another one of our core policies is the freedom and flexibility to work remotely. This allows employees to organise their work around external commitments, such as caregiving duties or educational responsibilities. With approximately 50% of all employees working remotely full-time, we can confirm that this policy is highly successful. Additionally, when employees do attend our offices in person, our informal dress code policy ensures that each employee can feel comfortable, and empowered to be themselves.
To make working from home and working remotely as inclusive and efficient as possible, we have implemented several systems and technologies that make a hybrid work environment more convenient for all our employees. For example, to make sure that remote employees are suitably equipped we provide them with high quality equipment and tools as well as an additional remote working stipend appropriate for the location where any specific employee works. By enabling different communication channels, employees also have a variety of tools to contact their colleagues and stay up to date on any workplace developments or events, even while they are not physically present in the office. We also commit to sending out monthly newsletters to inform all our employees of company-wide developments and any other important updates. Additionally, in order to further promote the feeling of togetherness, we organise remote team events and games sessions, and have several channels for employees to discuss both work and non-work-related topics internally.
When it comes to securing our employees’ mental and emotional well-being, we want to make sure that every employee has access to quality healthcare. Therefore, we provide our employees with insurance that is appropriate for the location where the employees work.
Supporting the Local Community
At Boku, we care for more than just our own internal community. We are a global business and we recognise our responsibility to give back to the local communities that we operate in. Giving back to our local communities outside the office is of significant importance, at all levels of the Group. During 2023, we started a new initiative where our senior leadership team, whilst visiting the various Boku office locations across the globe, volunteers some of their time during these visits to local initiatives identified by Boku. For example, the senior leadership participated in a volunteering initiative called Open Heart based in the Bay Area. They assisted in preparing and packaging meals, as well as distributing groceries to local communities. Further and to enable every employee of Boku to support their local communities, we have also provided our employees with two volunteering days per year where they can take time off work, in addition to their annual leave, to allow employees to volunteer their time for causes that are important to them.
Social Mobility
As a global business, we recognize that fostering social mobility is one of our corporate responsibilities. In addition to contributing to societal well-being, fostering social mobility also helps to attract a broader range of talent and enhances innovation and creativity in the workforce.
Given the importance of our workforce to Boku, we want to see our employees grow and develop with the Company. We encourage and support employees to find seminars and qualifications relevant to their individual roles. We know that taking that step into management is not easy and that is why we provide leadership training and coaching to those in management to help them in their role and their development journey. We feel that it is beneficial to both those employees in management roles as well as their direct reports that the manager has the skills they need to feel comfortable in their role. Having provided this training to several employees across the business, we can see its many benefits and have decided, this year, to open the training to a wider range of employees in the hope that we can see more individuals progress in their careers at Boku. We believe both Boku and our employees will reap long term rewards from the renewed focus towards, and the investments made in, our employees’ individual skillsets.
Our most significant programme for social mobility at Boku, takes place in our London office, where we partner with Urban Synergy, a youth empowerment charity which has helped over 20,000 young people between 9-24 years of age reach their full potential. Every year, we provide work experience to young students in the aim that this will inspire and empower them for future success. During the work experience, we provide these students with meaningful projects and an opportunity to present these to members from our senior management. We also provide these students with opportunities to talk to various teams within the business that they may not be working with during their work experience, so that they can see how businesses are run and find alternate areas of business that may suit them and that they had not considered before. We want everyone who comes to Boku to see that the workplace is a place for everyone, no matter where they come from.
Our Product and Social Impact
According to the World Bank, enabling mobile financial services is a huge contributor to financial inclusion. Using mobile phones to create low-cost accounts and enable payments has created opportunities for customers to progress from participating in exclusively cash-based transactions to now increasingly participating in more alternative, cashless payment services. In many places in the world, it may be too far or too dangerous to travel to traditional financial institutions to access their services. Through the use of Boku’s alternative mobile payment methods, those “underbanked” communities who historically have not had the ease of access to traditional financial institutions now have more opportunities to participate in the online global marketplace and are now able to access and enjoy services that we, in developed economies, often take for granted, such as access to online gaming and streaming services.
While Boku is proud of its contribution to such communities, we are committed to further developing our understanding of our role in this ecosystem and how we can further expand our contribution and impact on this aspect of society.
Gender Diversity
Operating in the FinTech industry, we are aware that Boku, and the industry as a whole, has a lot of work to do in increasing the number of women in tech. The Board and senior management team at Boku have reiterated the importance of hiring and retaining more women into the business, and more specifically into more senior positions. We hope that by increasing the number of women in senior leadership, we can inspire and motivate women across the company, and that both our current, and prospective, female colleagues view Boku as a viable and appealing organisation in which women will have real opportunities for career advancement, from entry level all the way through to senior leadership roles.
At Boku, women represent 33% of the global workforce, a 4% increase from 2022. While we are pleased that more women are joining the Boku team, we are committed to investigating the opportunities we present so that we can continue to build on our progress in future years. Our flexible working and maternity reintegration policies are key aspects of demonstrating to our women employees that we are committed to providing them with a workplace environment where they are supported in all parenting decisions that they need to make for the benefit of their family, and that Boku will give its best efforts to ensure that such employees still feel like they belong to this organisation. Another key step in this regard is hiring an independent DEI resource who will identify gaps in our recruitment and working practices and allow us to make further progress in increasing our gender diversity.
We have reviewed publicly available research in order to assess where Boku stands in comparison to other technology companies across the United Kingdom and United States with regard to gender diversity:
- It is estimated that, in the UK, women generally represent 26% of the workforce in across technology companies. At Boku; 41% of our UK employees are women.
- It is further estimated that in the United States, women occupy 34.4% of the employee positions in the U.S.’s largest tech companies; at Boku 35.4% our of employees in the US are women.
- Additionally, we have seen 2% increases in the percentage of women in our Estonian and Mumbai offices.
While the number of women in the Boku workforce has increased over the last year, we acknowledge that the percentage of women in technical roles at the Company has decreased from 25% to 24%. While this is broadly in line with benchmarks for similar roles across the EU (22%) and US (28%), we truly believe that women are vital to the long-term success of the FinTech sector in which we operate and we are in the process of setting targets to increase the current representation of women in technical roles here at Boku.
Further, we believe that working mothers provide vital contributions to diversity of thought and the overall development of the Company. We strongly believe that women should not be penalised for having children and, in certain jurisdictions, the available statutory support for pregnant women and new mothers only serves to provide these women with significant workplace barriers. Retention of key talent is an important issue for us and a such, providing mothers with an accessible environment in which they can thrive and feel supported is just one way in which we can make Boku a better place to work for current and future employees.
We have reviewed the statutory maternity leave provisions across our office locations and have identified jurisdictions where the statutory support is not satisfactory. In California, companies are required to provide just 12 weeks of maternity leave and are not required to provide any paid maternity leave. In the UK, employers are only obliged to pay 90% of the average weekly earnings for the first six weeks of maternity leave and up to £172.48 per week for the next 33 weeks of maternity leave. In both situations, we have implemented a policy of paying employees with 100% of their salary for the first 25 weeks of maternity leave. In addition to changes to our paid maternity leave, we are currently reviewing our reintegration processes.
Gender Pay Gap
Gender diversity is not the only equity issue that needs to be addressed across the technology industry, (including here at Boku), we also need to address the gender pay gap. In the UK, it is reported that 91.1% of tech companies with over 250 employees have paid their male employees more than their female employees. Across our tech roles, when reviewed including executive management pay or without executive management pay, we have achieved gender pay parity at Boku. As a tech company, we are delighted that we are able to confirm that women in tech roles at all levels are being paid at parity with men. However, across all roles at Boku, the gender pay gap has increased by 4% from 16% at the end of 2022 to 20% at the end of 2023. In certain areas of examination, the gender pay gap had decreased, for example the US decreased from 5% to 2% and employees aged between 22-35 decreased from 5% to 3%. However, the pay gap has increased in other areas, such as UK (excluding executive management) where it increased from 29% to 33% and India increased from 16% to 20%.
Our current methodology for assessing the gender pay gap is to use the modal average of all roles across certain filters, for example, all tech roles, all non tech roles, country of employment and age. In 2024, we are committed to carrying out a more extensive review of the gender pay gap at Boku, including producing a more representative gender pay gap figure based on comparable figures. Using these statistics, we hope to be able to identify areas that need to be addressed and make improvements towards achieving pay parity. Fixing the gender pay gap is incredibly important to us at Boku and, in 2024, we hired a new experienced Chief People Officer who has been tasked with addressing this area of focus as one of her key priorities going forward.
Governance
Boku is an AIM listed company with several regulated subsidiaries across the globe. As such, we understand that a strong corporate governance framework is essential for our business to succeed. The Board continually reviews and assesses this framework to ensure that it meets the standards required by our investors, regulators, customers and other stakeholders. Boku is a member of Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) and chooses to apply its Corporate Governance Code. A summary of Boku’s compliance with the QCA Code can be found on pages 27 to 34.
Board and Committees
Throughout the year, we have reviewed the structure, frequency and proceedings of our Board and committee meetings. As a result of these reviews, we have added additional Audit Committee meetings so that the committee has sufficient time to conduct in depth discussions regarding the audit process and conduct a review of the Company’s risk management framework. The Board has also considered how best to structure Board meetings in order to allow for additional focus on the Company’s purpose and strategy.
During 2023, it was announced that Jon Prideaux, Boku’s former CEO, was to retire from his role as CEO and would continue as a Non-Executive Director for the remainder of his term. It was also announced that Stuart Neal, CEO, would take over as CEO from January 1, 2024 and was to act as CEO designate until Jon Prideaux formally retired. Following on from the changes, we felt that it would be beneficial for Stuart Neal, as incoming CEO, and the Board as a whole to carry out an external Board effectiveness review.
Policies & Training
We have an established Code of Ethics to make sure we underline the principles that we wish our staff to adhere. We also have specific staff conduct policies, on whistleblowing, information security, and anti-bribery and corruption. Throughout the course of our investigations that have taken place since the date of our last annual report, we have found no instances of any systemic issues or breaches of our anti-bribery and corruption policy, nor of any anti-bribery and corruption laws. Compulsory training modules on data protection, information security and anti-money laundering are taken by all staff on an annual basis.
Modern Slavery
We are committed to preventing unethical practices within our own business. Additionally, we want to do the same for the partners that we work with—across the entire supply chain. Due to the nature of our business, Boku’s main suppliers are mostly involved in IT and marketing services, and they are largely considered to be low risk.
As part of our onboarding process, we conduct due diligence on all our prospective partners and suppliers. By applying a risk-based approach, we ensure that all our partners meet our highest standards.
Boku has established and published a modern slavery statement which can be found on our website.
Whistleblowing
Colleagues can make use of our web-based whistleblowing procedures, to report any criminal offences, ethical wrongdoings or other instances of malpractice that may cause harm to others. Concerns can be raised directly, on a strictly confidential basis, or anonymously, with each case to be assessed thoroughly by a dedicated ‘triage team’ consisting of Boku’s general counsel, Director of human resources and head of risk and compliance, who will further engage with the reporter on the specific concern and the ensuing process. Boku’s whistleblowing policy is introduced to all new employees throughout the onboarding process and is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is suitably adequate for Boku and its employees.