Korea's Viva Republica raises $405m at $7.2b valuation
Viva Republica, operator of the Korean money transfer app Toss, has raised a KRW460 billion ($404 million) round led by US-based Alkeon Capital, at a valuation of around $7.2 billion.
State-owned Korea Development Bank (KDB), Altos Ventures, and Greyhound Capital also participated. KDB contributed KRW100 billion to the round, while Alkeon provided KRW84 billion, according to a statement.
It comes 10 months after a $173 million round featuring Altos, Greyhound, Sequoia Capital China, Kleiner Perkins, Aspex Management, and Goodwater Capital. Viva Republica’s valuation has tripled in US dollar terms during this period.
The company has now raised around $1.1 billion to date, according to AVCJ Research, with previous investors including GIC Private, Bessemer Venture Partners, Ribbit Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, KTB Network, and Partech Ventures. PayPal backed the company as early as 2017.
COVID-19 is considered a key driver of recent momentum, with some 3.5 million users having signed up for Toss in the past three months. There is also some degree of zero-to-one upside in the opportunity set, given the counterintuitively underdeveloped digital payments landscape in Korea.
While the country is regarded as highly technocratic with a well-established digital infrastructure and a reputation for rapid adoption rates, modernization in banking and payments has lagged. Even the smallest online banking transfers can require several password checks and dozens of clicks.
Toss, a P2P service said to have been used by one-third of Korea’s population, facilitates money transfers in three steps with a single password entry. The app currently has about 11 million monthly active users (MAUs) and is targeting 20 million by 2025. It has seen significant traction since entering Vietnam in 2019 – where is has 3 million MAUs – and is planning to enter Malaysia.
Overall revenue came to KRW390 billion in 2020 and is expected to top KRW1 trillion this year as the company builds out a super-app strategy through various new products such as Toss Bank, a mobile finance platform set for launch in September. Revenue is reportedly targeted to hit KRW5 trillion by 2025, but there are no plans to go public within this timeframe.
“Our investors believe Toss will ultimately become a $100 billion company, so they are not hurrying for an exit or an IPO,” S.G. Lee, Viva Republica’s CEO, told Bloomberg. “At this moment, we are not preparing or reviewing an IPO, but we will list our shares within 3-5 years. Nothing has been decided on destinations for the listing, but we are open to options including US or Korea listings.”
More on North Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.