Korean fintech super app’s valuation jumps 2.5x to over $7b after fresh fundraise

South Korea-based Viva Republica, which operates the mobile financial app Toss, has raised US$410 million in fresh funding. The company is now valued at US$7.4 billion and has raised a total of over US$940 million to date.

US-based Alkeon Capital led the latest round. A new investor, the state-run Korea Development Bank, and returning investors Altos Ventures, Greyhound Capital, and Willett Advisors also participated in the round.

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According to Viva Republica, the latest valuation is about 2.5x higher than when the company received its previous major investment a few months ago. In August last year, the company raised US$173 million in funding at a valuation of US$2.6 billion.

Viva Republica plans to use the latest capital to push its new subsidiary companies, Toss Bank and Toss Securities.

Launched in March this year, Toss Securities is a mobile-native investing service that has attracted over 3.5 million registered users so far. Toss Bank, meanwhile, is likely to go live in September this year. It will focus on lending and on providing savings accounts with competitive interest rates.

The firm, which has already entered the Vietnamese market, also plans to expand its presence in the Southeast Asian market.

The exponential rise in Viva Republica’s valuation is driven by Toss’ increasing popularity in its home market. The app has 20 million users in South Korea, covering nearly half of the local population.

In Vietnam, it is gaining some traction too. Since its debut in 2020, Toss has garnered more than 3 million monthly active users in the country, and the company claims it is adding about half a million monthly active users more every month.

Toss made its debut in 2015 as a peer-to-peer money transfer service. In the following years, it transitioned into a financial super app covering services such as banking, investment, insurance, and payments. It currently handles more than US$5 billion in monthly transactions on its platform.

The latest funding round also makes Toss the second most valuable startup in South Korea, only behind Krafton, which runs the blockbuster video game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Krafton earlier this month said it aims to raise US$5 billion through an IPO, which is likely to be South Korea’s largest ever.

Toss, however, is in no rush to go public. Viva Republica CEO SG Lee told Bloomberg that investors are confident of Toss becoming a US$100 billion company and are not in a hurry for the startup to exit or go for an IPO.

“At this moment, we are not preparing for or reviewing an IPO, but we will list our shares within three to five years. Nothing has been decided on destinations for the listing but we are open to options, including US or Korea listings,” he said.