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Boku is not a significant Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitter which means that our approach to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is driven from our values rather than pure reporting requirements for 2022. We are a global company, with customers and employees across the planet, and many of the global technology giants who work with us pay an ever increasing amount of attention to social and environmental responsibilities and risks.
With this in mind, we look at three aspects relating to the environment for Boku:
- Strategic: How our strategy can contribute towards a better outcome for planet and people
- Risks: What risks may need to be considered related to climate change
- Operational: How we as a business can do good and reduce harm in our day to day working
a. Strategic
A key part of our strategy is built on creating a platform for global technology companies, and people all around the world, including in underserved developing economies in the world to transact. This requires a deep focus on UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10, and in particular 10.5 “Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and strengthen the implementation of such regulations”. Boku entities are registered or have regulatory approval to provide payment services in 37 markets globally. This number is increasing steadily. This means we can enable a global market in financial transactions which fulfil all the varied regulatory and cultural requirements of very diverse markets.
Our payments services extend to populations around the world where consumers are “unbanked” or “underbanked”. Numerous populations lack access to payment methods like credit and debit cards that are the gateway to participation in eCommerce and the global digital economy in Western countries.
According to the World Bank, 1.4 billion people worldwide remain unbanked, but many rapidly developing regions like Africa and Southeast Asia are taking advantage of digital and payments technology in order to participate in the digital economy. For instance, while 70% of consumers in Southeast Asia are underbanked or unbanked according to a Bain & Co. study (Fulfilling Its Promise: The Future of Southeast Asia’s Digital Financial Services. Bain & Company, Google, and Temasek. Accessed February 2022), the region’s economic growth remains one of the world’s most robust, with both consumers and merchants fully embracing digital commerce and payments technology.
Boku provides payment acceptance technology that allows consumers, who may not have previously had the opportunity, to pay for everyday online services which people in more economically developed countries may take for granted, like streaming services or gaming. Our technology helps our partners to connect with harder to reach consumers around the world with solutions that make payments easier, more accessible and more inclusive for those that need it.
b. Risks
The company integrates ESG risk into the corporate risk register. We operate (using 3rd parties) a resilient hosting environment with sufficient redundancy and do not consider climate risk to be a major risk to our operations.
c. Operational
Boku’s primary attention to ESG is in this category. We believe that these considerations should be integrated into the day-to-day business of the Company. Boku’s developing ESG framework ensures that ESG is considered in the decision-making at all levels of the business.
Environmental
In 2021, Boku began measuring and reporting on energy usage across each of its 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) requirements.
The Scope 1 figures, which capture our refrigerant emissions only, were calculated using the screening method. This is 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.
The Scope 2 figures, showing emissions from purchased electricity and heat, 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 UK and 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 and India were calculated using monthly bills with individual usage data from the building landlords and/or energy providers, respectively.
As expected, the removal of the majority of COVID restrictions in many countries and an increased shift towards returning to the office and hybrid working has resulted in energy consumption increasing in our various offices. In January 2022, our Tallinn office moved to a larger office space which has also contributed to increased energy consumption by us in Estonia.
Several of our offices are supplied by energy tariffs which are either powered wholly or partly by renewable sources, with our London office supplied by a 100% renewable energy tariff. Our offices are also supplied with food and drinkware to reduce wastage.
| Energy Consumption (tCO2e) | UK | Estonia | USA | India | Germany | Total | ||||||
| FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | |
| 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 | 6.04 | 11.93 | 35.95 | 79.09 | 21.72 | 14.90 | 20.40 | 37.69 | 0.91 | 1.95 | 85.01 | 145.56 |
| Total | 6.44 | 12.33 | 35.95 | 79.09 | 21.72 | 14.90 | 20.59 | 37.88 | 0.91 | 1.95 | 85.60 | 146.15 |
| Intensity Ratio (tCO2e per $m group revenue) | UK | Estonia | USA | India | Germany | Total | ||||||
| FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | FY 21 | FY 22 | |
| Scope 1 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Scope 2 | 0.11 | 0.19 | 0.64 | 1.24 | 0.39 | 0.23 | 0.36 | 0.59 | 0.02 | 0.03 | 1.51 | 2.28 |
| Total | 0.12 | 0.20 | 0.64 | 1.24 | 0.39 | 0.23 | 0.36 | 0.59 | 0.02 | 0.03 | 1.52 | 2.29 |
Social
We take our responsibilities as an employer and guardian of good culture and values seriously. The following provides a flavour of how we do this now, and how we will continue to do so as we grow:
Culture of respect, equity and inclusion
At Boku, we are proud of our values which guide our decision-making, and sit at the heart of the way we operate and help drive our behaviours, goals and strategy. One of Boku’s core values is ‘collaborate’ and with that we have created a culture where employees are empowered to be themselves and feel supported to raise and discuss matters openly in a supportive environment.
We strongly believe at Boku that our people are what makes the company great and this is why we are committed to continuing to foster an equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace which is crucial to our future success.
Caring for our team
While COVID-19 continued to impact certain communities across the globe during 2022, we continued to prioritise our people, as we know our team’s dedication and commitment is the key driver to our success. During the 2022 financial year, we hosted several events and remote activities to support employees across the globe. We will continue to provide resources and support to our people and listen to their direct feedback on how to make Boku a fantastic place to work and thrive.
Employee engagement
With the majority of the workforce working remotely, it was more important than ever for us to stay close to our teams through regular all-hands meetings with Q&A sessions and employee engagement surveys to ensure that we are listening to, and supporting, our employees.
Further, we understand the importance of keeping team cohesion while our workforce continues to work remotely. This is why we regularly organise ‘offsite’ events for our various teams across the globe. These events allow our workforce to meet up in-person, engage in fun team-building activities, as well as share ideas of how Boku can improve and further achieve its goals. For us, a cohesive and happy team is a successful team.
Mentoring programme
Boku is a proactive and enthusiastic promoter of social mobility and inclusion within the workforce, supporting all staff in their career progression.
Our aim to be equal opportunity employer and to help talented people from all sectors of society to have the opportunity to work and thrive in the Fintech sector and we endeavour to hire and support future talents, empowering and supporting our people to reach their potential. Their contribution, in turn, drives the ability of Boku to better meet its business goals.
Boku’s UK office participates in Urban Synergy’s mentoring and internship (DREAM) programs. Urban Synergy is a youth empowerment charity whose mission is to inspire, guide and ignite the ambitions of young people. They run an early intervention scheme which helps youths, aged from 10 – 18 years old, to reach their full potential. Multiple members of the Boku leadership team in the UK have participated in these programs helping nurture talent and encourage development in the next generation, irrespective of their background.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (‘EDI’)
At Boku, we believe that an environment of respect, empathy and inclusion brings out the best in people by making them feel valued and enables a culture of workplace collaboration and harmony for everyone. Creating such an environment is critical to the success of our business but also embedded in our people, culture and business.
Our EDI strategy is built on the strong foundation we have cultivated over time which is overseen by our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and helps drive progress across our global workforce and beyond.
- Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Our EDI Committee plays a vital role in developing our EDI strategy and implementing initiatives to help us achieve our EDI goals. The Committee meet every two weeks to discuss key EDI topics and the development of initiatives to further our continuous drive to support all of our workforce. We regularly produce an EDI newsletter to raise awareness of key EDI topics, inform of current and planned initiatives, as well as to encourage our workforce to share their thoughts on our EDI strategy and initiatives.
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion survey
In support of our EDI initiatives, we launched an EDI survey which anonymously polled Boku’s employees on a variety of relevant benchmarks.
Boku’s 2022 EDI survey presented a significant improvement from the previous financial year’s survey for the following reasons: (i) the overall engagement score increased from 43% to 64% which represents the levels of enthusiasm and connection employees have with their organisation at work and (ii) over 84% of employees responded favourably to inclusion related questions.
We also added new questions into the 2022 survey to gauge employees’ opinions on our culture of inclusion, belonging and social mobility which will serve as a baseline for future programs. Feedback from these employee surveys provide critical insights from across the business which will help us continue to drive progress by putting together targeted initiatives and encouraging ongoing conversations on EDI topics.
Survey highlights include:
- 77% of employees responded that their managers demonstrated that diversity was important by fostering a safe environment for employees to raise and discuss EDI matters in the workforce;
- 84% of employees responded that Boku provides a flexible working environment for those with caring responsibilities; and
- 85% of employees responded that they felt confident that their social or economic background were not factors in the hiring process and did not influence the hiring decision.
Spread of scores by demographics:
Gender balance
The Board and senior management at Boku recognises that there are gender diversity challenges in the FinTech industry. To resolve this we try to ensure that our recruitment practices are fair and encourage women to apply for our roles.
In 2022, the proportion of women working in each of Boku’s offices, other than Estonia, increased. Here at Boku, we want to be doing more than ‘just enough’ to improve the gender balance of our workforce, and this is exemplified by the fact we employ a higher percentage of women in a number of our offices than the industry benchmark. For example, the percentage of women in our workforce in the US and UK is 37% and 44% respectively, which is higher than the FinTech industry benchmarks for each country.
Further, representation of women in technical roles across all of Boku’s offices has increased from 18% to 25% between 2021 and 2022. While this growth shows good progress, this is an area where we will place continued focus moving forward.
Another goal of ours was to improve the representation of women in senior leadership positions and on the board. In 2021, only 17% of our senior leadership positions were filled by women. Fast-forward to 2022, 26% or our senior leadership positions are now filled by women, a marked improvement. In the boardroom, the representation of women has also improved. In 2022, Boku appointed its second woman to the board of directors, which now means that 25% of the board are female compared to just 16% in 2021. For us, it is vital that we continue to encourage women into senior leadership and board positions to allow for new and diverse perspectives to shape our business and drive us towards our goals.
While there has been growth in gender diversity in many of Boku’s offices, as well as in technical, senior leadership and board positions, we expect that our focused approach to gender diversity will result in further improvements and the eventual achievement of gender balance throughout all levels of the business.
Gender pay gap
We recognise that it is important not only to improve the gender balance of the workforce and improve representation of women in senior leadership and board positions, but to also ensure that they are equitably compensated compared to men in similar roles.
In 2022, our worldwide gender pay gap (excluding Non Executive Directors) reduced from 26% in 2021 to 16%. While this is an improvement from our previous position, we know we have significant room for improvement and we are committed to making further reductions in gender pay gap across our whole workforce. In 2022, the gender pay gap in our USA and India offices were, however, smaller than the industry benchmarks (US benchmark – Gender wage gap, OECD Data for 2020 [link] India benchmark – Monster Salary Index (MSI) for India, March 2019 pg 28 [link]), with the pay gap in the US being 5%.
Addressing the gender pay gap is important to us, and we are aware that we have to make further improvements. More generally, we are taking a ground up approach to improving gender diversity.
In recent years, we have appointed a significant amount of women into entry-level jobs, women that we believe are the future technical leaders and managers of our company. Demonstrating this belief and our commitment to reducing the gender pay gap, the pay gap for employees aged 21-35 is just 5%. We believe this approach will set in motion the achieving of gender balance and equal pay in our workforce in the future.
As a business, we remain firmly committed to reducing our gender pay gap. We will continue to monitor these results and review our policies throughout the year to ensure we are doing everything we can to further reduce the gender pay gap.
Equity and Inclusion
At Boku we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer where individuals seeking employment are considered without regard to age, colour, gender, identity, national origin, race, sex, marital status, physical or mental disability, religion or sexual orientation, or any other legally protected categories.
To find and select a diverse pool of talented candidates to hire from, managers and recruiters are expected to consider a diverse range of candidates. To help achieve this goal, Boku uses an online tool which is designed to find and hire the best talent whilst reducing any unconscious bias throughout every stage of the hiring process.
We understand the importance of writing inclusive job descriptions when hiring, so we have placed importance on guiding our managers on how to write them effectively.
We are also firm believers that hiring diverse talent requires diverse interview panels, hence why our interview panels are always made of a diverse range of Boku staff.
We continue to be focused on attracting, developing and retaining the diverse talent that we need to advance our business today and into the future. We invest across the employee life cycle – from recruiting and employee development to engagement, compensation and benefits – in order to build a diverse team and inclusive culture where our employees across the globe are welcomed, valued and are able to be themselves and produce their best work.
Our goal is to maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce, reflective of the jurisdictions we operate in, and we are focused on hiring talent with a wide range of characteristics and diversity of skill sets and thinking.
Connecting our global workforce and celebrating our cultural diversity
On a group-wide basis, we like to communicate with our workforce through regularly publishing internal employee newsletters (alongside our EDI newsletter) which provides updates on company events encourages employees to share thoughts, and help Boku’s global workforce to remain connected on what is going on in other parts of the organisation.
We also see the value in supporting our workforce in keeping connected. We want our employees to embrace their passions outside of the company and share them with their colleagues, so we have created a number of dedicated Slack channels for different interests across our office groups. These range from #food and #bakeoff to #diversityofficeevents and cater to our people’s wide-range of passions. These Slack channels are a great place for people to connect, discuss challenges they are facing and share thoughts.
We are incredibly proud of the cultural diversity within each of our offices and we love to celebrate significant dates and rituals that are vital to our workforce’s cultural identity. On religious holidays like Diwali, we encourage our employees to take part in the festivities and learn more about their colleagues’ cultures. We also encourage each office to create their own local initiatives which cater to their culture. For example, in Estonia, employees from both offices come together to celebrate annual ‘winter days’ and ‘summer days’ events. We also like to offer our people in the UK offices free lunches on Wednesday, with cuisines varying on a weekly basis with input from our employees. Through celebrating our cultural diversity, we encourage our people to share their perspectives and stories, allowing our people to feel valued as part of the Boku community.
Training
We train our employees with the skills needed for today and tomorrow. Training efforts across the company include mandatory onboarding for new hires and focused on topics from technology to compliance and business processes. All employees are required to take annual training on anti-money laundering (AML), privacy and data protection (GDPR), cybersecurity and anti-corruption. In 2022, all managers at Boku were requested to take EDI training relating to tackling unconscious bias in hiring and performance management. We also encourage and support employees to find seminars and qualifications relevant to their individual roles. We believe that by investing in our employees’ own personal skillsets both the employee and Boku will reap long-term rewards.
Well-Being and Work Life Balance
Our employees’ health and wellbeing is incredibly important to us here at Boku. We offer numerous healthcare benefits for employees and their families and we also encourage our employees to focus on their well-being. In our London office, a sports therapist comes in once a month to offer massages to employees.
We are also focused on supporting our employees’ mental health. We are committed to building a workplace that increases awareness of mental health, educates employees and provides support when people need it. For example, employees in our US offices have access to confidential third party counselling and support.
We are committed to supporting all our staff in balancing work and family life and we have implemented certain policies and support mechanisms to deliver on this objective. One such policy is to offer staff the choice to work flexibly, giving them some control over their schedule. This policy allows employees to organise their time by working around external commitments, such as childcare duties. The policy has been a resounding success, with between 50-55% of our employees company-wide now working remotely full time.
With the success of our remote working policy, we have taken proactive steps to ensure that all of our people feel included and able to be at their productive best. Examples of some of the steps taken by the company include:
- investing in new technology within our meeting rooms and team areas to help remote workers feel included;
- investing in the technology provided to our remote workers to help them remain productive;
- creating dedicated routes for our remote workers to continue to enjoy the social aspects of their jobs – such as hosting remote socials and the creation of the dedicated Slack channels mentioned above; and
- ensuring healthcare benefits cater for all our workers, including those who work remotely.
We continue to invest in technologies to ensure that our team members can work productively, regardless of where they are based. We have a Home Office Expense Policy in which we pay for all the equipment our remote and hybrid workers need to do their jobs – the comfort of our people is crucial to us, regardless of where they are working from.
Governance
Boku recognises that a strong corporate governance framework is an essential foundation for the running of a successful, sustainable and ethically run business. Governance arrangements are reviewed by the our Board on a regular basis to ensure that they are fit for purpose and comply with the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) Corporate Governance Code. A summary of Boku’s compliance with the QCA Code can be found in our Annual Report.
In 2022, we appointed a further two independent non-executive directors. Our Board appreciates that, as a quickly expanding listed company, it is imperative that our Board comprises of individuals who can offer a wealth of experience, knowledge and advice. The Board feels that it has achieved this with the appointment of the new independent non-executive directors who come from different professional backgrounds to the existing board members.
We have an established a Code of Ethics which is underpinned by several policies, procedures and training modules to ensure that staff adhere to its principles. We also have specific staff conduct policies including whistleblowing, information security and anti-bribery and corruption. Compulsory training modules on data protection, information security and anti-money laundering are taken by all staff on an annual basis.
We are committed to not only preventing unethical practices, such as modern slavery, within our own business but also across our supply chain. Due to the nature of our business, Boku’s main suppliers are mostly involved in IT and marketing services and are largely considered to be low risk. As part of our onboarding process, we conduct due diligence on all our prospective partners and suppliers, applying a risk-based approach to ensure that all our partners are meeting our highest standards. Boku has established and published a modern slavery statement which can be found on our website.