Kleiner Perkins, Aspex lead $64m round for Korea's Viva Republica

Existing investors Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, GIC Private, Sequoia Capital China, and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated. It brings total funds raised to date to KRW300 billion ($247 million) and values the company at around $2.2 billion, according to a statement.

Viva Republica raised an $80 million round last year led by Kleiner Perkins and fellow US investor Ribbit Capital that valued the start-up at $1.2 billion. Other previous investors include Qualcomm Ventures, KTB Network, Partech Ventures, industrial materials company Novelis Korea and fintech giant PayPal.

Viva Republica’s core product is a peer-to-peer money transfer platform called Toss, which aims to simplify a complicated local online banking and e-commerce environment. Digital money transfers in Korea can require as many as five password checks and 37 clicks when dealing the country’s major commercial lenders.

Toss is said to have more than 13 million registered users, with total transactions processed to date amounting to some $42 million. It is seen as leveraging momentum in the local fintech sector, including a softening regulatory environment and increased interest from conglomerates, as well as macro challenges, which could see domestic growth shift from consumer-facing brands to B2B models.

This is the first investment by Aspex, which plans to make long-horizon investments across the region in both public and private equity. The firm launched a hedge fund earlier this year that had raised about $151 million as of April, according to a regulatory filing.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Expansion
• South Korea
• Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers
• Altos Ventures
• Goodwater Capital
• GIC Private
• Sequoia Capital
• Bessemer Venture Partners
• Financial Services