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In focus
- Loans over users for Tonik
- Premium experiences over cheap pricing for Plaud
- GCash pushes through with long-awaited IPO
Hello reader,
Walk around a mall in Manila and you’ll usually find a digital banking kiosk with agents convincing mallgoers to open up accounts. One of the most prominent banks with this strategy is GoTyme, which mainly targets grocery shoppers.
But I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen much of this strategy from Tonik. And apparently, it’s by design.
Instead of chasing a massive user base, Tonik is prioritizing loan deployments, its founder and CEO Greg Krasnov told Tech in Asia for this edition’s first featured story. Lending services account for 99% of Tonik’s annualized revenue run rate, which crossed the US$60 million mark in April.
He adds that focusing on credit allows Tonik to generate an average revenue per user that is roughly 20x higher than digital banks focused purely on savings and payments.
For this edition’s second featured story, my colleague Glenn highlighted that Plaud, a US-based firm that uses AI to take notes through a proprietary device, has reached US$100 million in annual recurring revenue.
Just like Tonik, Plaud is using a different approach from its competitors to grow its metrics. Instead of playing the pricing game, the company is focused on giving premium services, confident that its users would choose quality over cost.
Both firms are taking an unconventional path in industries with shrinking margins. Will their bets pay off down the line?
Miguel Cordon, journalist
Top stories
1️⃣ Tonik lowers loan growth forecast, hits cash flow breakeven in Q1
Photo credit: Tonik
The bank is eyeing a Tokyo Stock Exchange listing within the next two to three years. This is after Tonik entered the TSE Asia Startup Hub ecosystem, which promotes the bourse as a listing prospect for startups across the region.
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