Mobile payment company Fonix has announced that it processed over £6.6m worth of text donations for this year’s BBC Children in Need fundraiser.

In a statement released today, Fonix said that the £6.6m its payment platform processed surpassed the 2014 total and helped contribute to the £37.1m raised for Children in Need so far in 2015, the largest total raised by the event since it launched in 1980.

The £37.1m figure raised was £4.5m more than the figure raised for the BBC’s children’s charity in 2014. This was the second year that Fonix has provided a mobile payment platform for the event.

According to the statement, donation were gathered using “on-screen promotion in £5 and £10 amounts,” across a number of the BBC’s “flagship shows”, as well as through a specially created fundraising campaign on the night the show aired on 13 November.

Rob Weisz, chief executive of Fonix said: "For Fonix, BBC Children in Need is one of the highlights of our working calendar.

"Supporting such an amazing charity event with our platforms and processes is so rewarding and demonstrates the importance of text to donate mechanics in providing consumers with the means to make a simple, spontaneous donation.”

It was also the first Children in Need television appeal since 1980 that was not hosted by television personality Terry Wogan, who was forced to miss the event due to health reasons. The event was hosted by Dermot O’Leary instead.