• Subsidiary mobile business engine GmbH receives payment license from BaFin
• Significant expansion of the business model
• New revenue potential with digital and physical products and services expected

Düsseldorf, 30. September 2021. mobile business engine GmbH (mbe GmbH), a subsidiary of net digital AG (ISIN: DE000A2BPK34, WKN: A2BPK3, ticker symbol: VRL), has received a license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) in accordance with Section 10 of the German Payment Services Supervision Act (ZAG). This enables net digital AG to provide payment services for customers such as the issuing of payment instruments, the acceptance and settlement (acquiring) of payment transactions and financial transfer transactions.

The license granted enables net digital AG to significantly expand its existing business with digital products to include physical goods and services and to address an even larger market. While the focus has so far been on digital offerings such as tickets, movies, music or ePaper, the business can now be expanded to include all physical goods and services via mbe GmbH's payment interface. The technology for this is already available at mbe GmbH, so that no further investments need to be made. The granting of the license is the decisive step towards fully exploiting the growth potential in the mobile payment sector.

"We expect the license that has now been granted to provide a significant boost to the growth of our business, as we can now, as a fully-featured FinTech company, draw on a market potential that is many times greater than what we have addressed to date. We now have the opportunity to expand our core business into adjacent areas. Take for example the billing of parking fees; now we can also offer our customers a mobile and uncomplicated payment solution for charging EVs or at the adjacent store. But we are also putting our customers in a position to bill completely new, usage-based business models in the IoT-space," comments Theodor Niehues, CEO of net digital AG.

Technically, the payment transactions are implemented without time taking registration processes with mobile network operators as partners such as Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Vodafone or MobilcomDebitel via SIM-card-payment. The advantage for end customers of this solution, which is largely anonymous and protects their own data, is, that no critical personal information such as credit card or banking card informations or similar have to be stored on the cell phone or smartphone.

Another decisive advantage of SIM card-based billing is its hardware independence. With mbe GmbH's solution, it is possible for the majority of mobile customers in Germany to pay by cell phone. By the end of 2020, there will be around 150 million mobile connections in Germany alone. This includes so-called machine-to-machine (M2M) connections. Thanks to new mobile communications standards such as 5G and IoT-enabled devices and machines, B2B customers, for example, will be able to bill new usage-based business models easily with net digital AG's solution.

"Thanks to the high and further increasing smartphone penetration, mobile payment plays a crucial role as a modern payment solution. Our innovative solution offers clear added value for all participants. It can be used across retailers and offers smooth integration into systems and processes at the point-of-sale and is predestined for widespread use," says Frank Arnold, Managing Director of mobile business engine GmbH (www.mbe4.de).

About net digital AG

net digital AG is a partner of many medium-sized and large companies in the fields of telecommunications, media and entertainment and develops global and individually adapted digital payment solutions with a focus on digital content distribution via its own technology platform. The content distribution solutions focus on entertainment, music and video. The around 250 international customers of net digital AG include, for example, large telecommunications and media groups as well as various public transport companies. Net digital AG reaches more than 100 million consumers via the technology platform. The shares of net digital AG are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "VRL" (ISIN: DE000A2BPK34, WKN: A2BPK3).

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