Viva Republica, one of South Korea’s most valuable fintech start-ups, is planning to raise up to $1bn from international investors in the second quarter to fund the expansion of its super app Toss and take on SoftBank-backed competitors Grab and GoTo in south-east Asia. The start-up, backed by Singapore’s GIC, PayPal and Sequoia Capital China, raised $410mn in June at a valuation of $7.4bn and is seeking another round of funding before launching an initial public offering. The company has raised more than $940mn in equity funding to date. After venturing into Vietnam in 2019, where it has attracted 3mn active users with money transfer and debit card services, the company is now pushing into five other countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and India — where it will go head-to-head with Singapore’s Grab and Indonesia’s GoTo, two of the biggest technology companies in the region.
Viva Republica’s sales more than doubled last year to Won820bn ($676mn), with Toss generating revenue from a suite of financial services including online banking, stock trading and insurance. South Korean financial companies have struggled to break into overseas markets despite burning significant amounts of cash. Domestic rivals Naver and Kakao Bank are also battling to make inroads into south-east Asia, but Lee stressed that his company was taking a targeted approach, focusing on credit analysis and in-depth research on consumer behaviors. Toss’s push into south-east Asia is likely to be an uphill struggle, given the presence of strong local players and Grab and GoTo, which have built a robust fintech ecosystem on the back of strong ride-hailing data.