VCs invest Philippines digital bank Tonik

The $6 million round is said to include significant participation by regional family offices and angel investors. It is expected to allow Tonik to begin commercial operations in the second half of the year. 

“Consumers in emerging markets deserve the ease and convenience of offerings like Amazon, and they expect the same from their bank,” Yinglan Tan, a founding managing partner at Insignia, said in a statement. “Building a modern bank from front to back is an incredible challenge, and we haven’t met a better team to take it on.”

Singapore-based Tonik, which aims to provide retail services around deposits, loans, payments, and cards, received its banking license from the Philippines regulator last month. The milestone is touted as establishing the company as one of only a few all-digital banks globally to be authorized to operate independently under its own license. 

Timo, a Vietnamese lender founded in 2015, claims to be its country’s first digital bank, although it is essentially a paperless interface for brick-and-mortar partner VPBank. Timo, which also has a strategic partnership with local private equity firm VinaCapital, maintains a limited number of cafe-style service centers it brands as “hangouts” and stresses are not branch locations. 

Elsewhere in the region, Singapore-based UOB has launched a smart, mobile-only digital banking app called TMRW, which will initially target Thailand and Indonesia. Gamification is a strong theme, with one product marketed as an “interactive savings game” that lets customers build larger virtual cities as cash accumulates in their accounts. Other products include a savings account, debit card, and credit card. 

Hong Kong and Singapore have both recently launched virtual banking licensing programs. In Hong Kong, at least eight companies have been granted a license to date, including local financial technology start-up WeLab, which raised $156 million in December with plans to launch a bank this year. In Singapore, early applicants include videogame designer Razer and a joint venture between ride-hailing app Grab and telecoms giant Singtel.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Financials
• Early-stage
• Philippines
• Singapore
• Insignia Venture Partners
• Financial Services