Eckoh wins $11.6m of new contracts in US Secure Payments

New contract value for US Secure Payments exceeds FY20 total showing excellent momentum for Eckoh's cloud platforms

Eckoh plc (AIM:ECK), the global provider of secure payment products and customer contact solutions, today announces an update on progress for new contracts in its US Secure Payments operation.

Despite the very challenging trading period at the outset of the year, since the beginning of September 2020 $9.3m of new contracts have been signed, taking new contract value for US Secure Payments won so far this financial year to $11.6m, comfortably exceeding the FY20 total of $10.7m. The number of individual contracts won in the year is also the highest since Eckoh entered the US market.

As highlighted in the interim results on 24 November 2020, the year has seen a significant positive swing in the number of contracts won and delivered through Eckoh's cloud platforms. Where possible, organizations have fast-tracked their plans to deploy in the cloud, a trend accelerated by the circumstances of the pandemic. More than half the contract value Eckoh has won, and more than 80% of the number of contracts, have been for cloud delivery. Our proven ability to successfully deliver solutions both on premise and in the cloud is one of the key differences that has seen Eckoh take a market leading position in the US.

Our latest contract, won in March through a new partner, is worth a minimum of $1.35m and is to deliver services to one of the largest not-for-profit US healthcare corporations. This adds to the growing base of clients in the healthcare sector where Eckoh's proven experience of delivery and our financial strength has been decisive.

The partnership with Intrado (originally West Corporation), was recently renewed until 2024. It delivered its first US contract win for Eckoh in 2016, and in the same year added a landmark deal with a Fortune 50 insurance company, which was recently renewed. The latest win in February for the partnership is a three-year contract for a Fortune 100 company, to secure both payments and personally identifiable information.

This breadth of data security is achieved through Eckoh's unique and patented solution CallGuard, which can tokenize sensitive information of many types. Eckoh's ongoing commitment to innovating its technology and product differentiation, continues to strengthen the Company's competitive advantage and market leadership, as the go-to provider of best-in-class secure payments solutions.

A year end trading update, which will cover the wider business, will be released as normal in May.

Nik Philpot, Chief Executive Officer at Eckoh, commented:

"The excellent performance of Eckoh's US Secure Payments business has been very satisfying, as it was one of the hardest hit in the first few months of the pandemic. Despite those challenges, with record numbers of contracts signed and new contract value beating last year's total, this clearly illustrates Eckoh's momentum in the attractive Secure Payments market.

It has also been great to see our commitment and investment into new sales channels paying dividends with significant sized deals coming through new partners, as well as our long-standing partnerships continuing to deliver high quality contracts. We anticipate that the share of channel revenue will steadily increase over the coming years as the number of relationships we have grows and the penetration of those partners into their specialist areas builds."