Korean Fintech startup Viva Republica’s Toss becomes a Financial Super App with fresh funding of $173 million

– Positioned as an undisputed leader in mobile finance in Korea, integrating every facet of consumer finance in one app.

– With its new initiatives into payments, banking, and securities, Toss is tapping into a $43bn market with little digital innovation to date.

Korea’s leading FinTech startup Viva Republica, and maker of mobile financial service Toss, has announced that it has raised $ 173 million in new funding led by key existing investors to fully drive its new initiative and become a one-stop app for all financial needs.

The returning investors that participated in the fund-raise include Aspex Management, Sequoia Capital China, Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund, Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and Greyhound Capital. With the largest single investment raised in the midst of global market turmoil due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Toss is now valued at US $ 2.6 billion and has secured a total of US $ 530 million to date.

토스, 2천억 원 투자 유치! 🎉

이번 투자는 회사 설립 후 이루어진 단일 투자로는 최대 규모인데요.

토스는 일상의 모든 금융 생활을 바꿀 때까지 꾸준히 나아가겠습니다. 앞으로도 많은 관심과 격려 부탁드릴게요. 🙌https://t.co/KCJ8Xyo9yK

— 토스 (@Toss_service) August 28, 2020

With this investment, Toss is positioned as an undisputed leader in mobile finance in Korea and took another step forward towards its goal to provide a full suite of financial services all in one app. The company aims to consolidate various financial products and, by leveraging user engagement data, offer the most customized recommendation of products from financial institutions such as banks, securities, and insurance companies. Through its recent acquisition of the payments business unit of LGU+, and obtaining a digital bank and securities brokerage license, Toss has become a full service fintech super app where users can meet every facet of their financial lives on one app.

● Newly launched TossPayments (via the acquisition of LGU+) now offers more than 80,000+ online merchants which account for 20% of total PG transactions to utilize Toss Pay. When combined with Toss’ existing P2P payments business, transaction volume nears $80 bn, which positions the company as a top contender to lead payment processing in the rapidly growing eCommerce space.

● Newly granted preliminary license for Digital Bank uniquely positions Toss to disrupt the mid-interest range loan market where no player has been able to succeed. Toss’ proprietary user data has been proven to be a key factor in lowering delinquency rates for subprime credit lending.

● As the first and only fintech company to be issued a new securities brokerage license in over a decade in Korea, Toss Securities expects to disrupt a market where incumbent players have not been able to win millennials users who have recently been one of the most active demographic in stocks.

Since launching in 2015, Toss positioned itself as one of the first fintech super apps boasting over 17 million users adding 1 million new users every quarter, and has experienced significant MAU growth by approx. 4 times for the past 3 years. Since the company first began to monetize its user base in 2016, Toss has posted a compounded annual growth rate of 225%, and surpassed US $ 100 million in 2019 while recording its first profitable quarter in the second quarter of this year.
Alongside its business expansion, the company has bulked up in size with more than 600 employees including those working at Toss’ subsidiaries. Toss plans to hire additional 500 employees by the end of the year and continue to aggressively attract more talents.

Korean Fintech startup Toss CEO & Founder SG Lee.

“We are building a financial super app fundamentally innovating across every facet of consumer finance. We believe that this fundraising has brought us a step closer to reaching our goal and we will continue to dedicate our efforts until we revolutionize all financial activities within everyday lives through Toss.” said SG Lee, co-founder and CEO of Viva Republica.

Toss, which started out in February 2015 as a simplified money transfer service has been downloaded 49 million times, has over 17 million registered users and has processed a total of USD 10 billion of transactions since its launch as of August, 2020. In terms of market size, when total market opportunities of each subsidiary, including Toss, digital bank, securities, payments and insurance brokerage, are assessed, it is estimated at approximately USD 43 billion based on annual sales.

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