Toss will use the latest capital infusion to invest in its products including digital lending and online payment service for local merchants and individuals. The new funding will also enable Toss to hasten growth for its challenger lender Toss Bank, which Viva Republica launched in 2021 and Toss Securities, a retail investment app.
Tonic Private Equity led the round, which saw participation from existing investors including Korea Development Bank (KDB), Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Greyhound Capital, Aspex Management, Bond Capital, and DUMAC.Korea Investment & Securities also joined the investment round, which valued the firm at USD 7 billion.
The first and second Series G closes, totalling USD 226 million and USD 175.8 million, respectively, were completed in the third quarter of 2022. The third close of the new investment was conducted in November.
Viva Republica claims it has the largest market share with its fintech super app in the country in terms of monthly active users (MAUs), with 24 million registered users for Toss and 14 million MAUs as of August 2022.
Launched in 2015, Toss started out as a money transfer service and has since expanded to offer a suite of financial services, including banking, insurance, and investing. Now, nearly seven years after launching Toss, Viva Republica is making its first major move beyond digital finance.
The startup launched Toss Payments – which enables local merchants to accept digital payment – in 2020 by acquiring a payment gateway business from LG’s mobile network company LG U+. Toss also took over Merchant Korea, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), in July 2022, planning to offer wireless communication services to consumers in 2023. The latest acquisition comes roughly eight months after it acquired a 60% stake in VCNC, an operator of the Korean ride-hailing platform Tada, wholly owned by car-sharing platform SoCar, in October 2021 to make a foray into the mobility market.
In May 2022, Toss Bank has announced it will now allow foreign residents in South Korea to open an online bank account.
A super app is an application that provides end users with a set of core features plus access to independently created mini apps. The super app is built as a platform to deliver a mini apps ecosystem that users can choose from to activate for consistent and personalised app experiences.
There is no separate app store or marketplace for mini apps. They are discovered and activated by the super app users, and once used, they can also be easily removed from the user interface.
Super apps run on a platform that provides numerous, commonly used app services, such as messaging and payment. Super app users can create personalised user experiences (UXs) by selecting and installing their chosen mini apps. Superapps will eventually expand to support chatbots, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, and immersive experiences like the metaverse.
A number of technology vendors already provide tools and platforms that help software engineering providers build super apps.
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