Toss en route to being Korea’s first fintech decacorn; valuation tops $7 bn

South Korea-based mobile financial platform Toss is en route to becoming the country's first fintech decacorn, or a company valued at over $10 billion, raising 460 billion won ($404.5 million) at a valuation of 8.2 trillion won ($7.4 billion) in the latest funding round, the company announced on June 23.

The Korea Development Bank and the US-based venture capital firm Alkeon Capital Management participated in the latest funding round, investing 100 billion won and 84 billion won, respectively. Previous investors including Altos Ventures and Greyhound Capital also carried out follow-on investments.

Toss is a leading digital wallet operated by Viva Republica. It boasts over 20 million users in Korea. 

The company's valuation has surged almost threefold in just ten months compared to its previous valuation of 3 trillion won when it raised 206 billion won in new capital from foreign VC firms in August 2020. The latest enterprise value is the combined valuation of Toss and its affiliate Toss Securities, as well as Toss Bank, which is set to debut in the third quarter of this year.

Toss considers its core competitiveness to be its ‘super app’ strategy where all financial services are provided in a single app. For example, its affiliate Toss Securities offers trading services via Toss. The brokerage service has surpassed 3.5 million accounts since its launch in March.

“Investors were attracted by Toss providing a wide range of financial services to its some 20 million users via a single app," said a Toss official, explaining that not many fintech companies offer a diverse business portfolio spanning the entire financial industry.

As Toss taps into core financial areas such as banking and securities, the company will be able to completely redesign the offering of financial services and products from the consumer point of view, according to Lee Seung-gun, the founder and chief executive of Viva Republica.

“The financial industry has experienced a speedy digital transition since the global pandemic, creating a vast growth opportunity for mobile financial platforms," said Lee.

The country's popular digital wallet is preparing for an initial public offering in 2023. Last year, Toss logged revenue of around 390 billion won. The company expects to top 1 trillion won in revenue this year on a consolidated basis. 

Write to Chae-yeon Kim at why29@hankyung.com
Danbee Lee edited this article.