S. Korean super app ‘Toss’ expands in Philippines

Viva Republica, the Seoul-based fintech group start-ups behind the super app Toss planned to raise over $1 billion from international investors to fund their expansion in Southeast Asia.

The fintech start-up, backed by Singapore’s GIC, PayPal, and Sequoia Capital China has raised $410M in June at a valuation of $7.4B and sought another round of funding prior to initial public offering. To date, the company has raised over $940M in equity funding.

Following their Vietnam venture in 2019 where 3 million active users utilize their money transfer and debit card services, Viva Republica is now pushing into five other countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and India where it will take on with Indonesia’s GoTo and Singapore’s Grab, two of the largest fintech companies in the region.

Analysts say Toss’s expansion in Southeast Asia is likely a difficult endeavor. “They have a chance at cracking those markets if they find proper local financial partners,” Lee Sung-bok said, a Korea Capital Market Institute researcher. “There are already established local players there, so it won’t be easy for Toss to come up with a fresh service to beat them,” he added.

Despite the speculations, the fintech company’s founder and chief executive Lee Seung-gun is optimistic in the said venture. “We have a really successful playbook that we achieved in South Korea, and we are trying to mimic that success in that region,” said Lee.

Toss has over 11 million monthly users in South Korea, and in Vietnam, they are adding more than 500,000 monthly active users.

Viva Republica’s sales doubled last year to ₩820B ($676M) thru Toss generating revenues from suite financial services such as online banking, stock trading, and insurance.