Viva Republica, the maker of financial services app Toss, raises $40 million from GIC and Sequoia China

Viva Republica, Korea’s foremost fintech startup and maker of financial services app Toss, has raised $40 million round of funding to gain significant momentum in accelerating its growth and enhancing product development. The latest round is led by GIC and Sequoia China, bringing the company’s total amount of funding raised to $116 million. The funding is GIC’s first investment in a startup in Korea and Sequoia China’s first investment in a Korean company.

Founded in 2013 and started as a mobile P2P money transfer service in 2015, Toss  delivers a full range of consumer finance services via a simple and frictionless user interface. Toss handles over $1.4 billion in monthly  transactions, and has expanded into a platform providing a full suite of financial services. The platform has become one of the world’s fastest growing financial apps, with a transaction run-rate of $17 billion. Complementing its P2P money transfer and payments system, Viva Republica’s Toss now delivers a full suite of financial services including a financial dashboard, credit score management service, and investment products.

Toss has also expanded into a platform providing a full suite of financial services, allowing users to easily manage every facet of their daily financial lives. Beyond money transfers, users can now conveniently utilize an array of consumer finance services within a single app, including a financial dashboard, credit score management, customized loan/insurance plans, as well as multiple investment services. The company was ranked 35th in KPMG’s 2017 Fintech 100. Based in Seoul, Viva Republica is backed by many high profile global investors including GIC, Sequoia China, PayPal, Bessemer Venture Partners, Goodwater Capital and Altos Ventures.

With more than 8 million registered users, a customer base that has nearly doubled from a year ago, Toss is expected to process over $17 billion in transaction run-rate and has a total trackable monthly transaction volume of about $10 billion.

“Toss’ evolution as a mobile financial services platform is very impressive. In addition to a seamless user experience and robust technology stack, the company’s monetization strategy and revenue growth are also remarkable. In Toss, we see all the signs of a successful company that we’ve witnessed in our portfolio – companies that have grown to become Asia’s leading unicorns. We strongly believe that Toss will dominate the Korean market and become a fintech giant,” said Glen Sun, Partner of Sequoia China.

“We are proud and honored to become partners with GIC and Sequoia China – some of the world’s most prominent investors. This bridge round is a strategic investment which will enable us to explore major opportunities such as investments and acquisitions to become the go-to service for all consumer financial needs while providing superb user experience,” said SG Lee, co-founder and CEO of Viva Republica.