Viva Republica, the developer of the financial services app Toss in Korea, has raised $48 million in a Series C round of funding that includes an investment from PayPal.
According to a report in TechCrunch, PayPal’s investment in Viva Republica marks the second investment for PayPal this year. Earlier this month it invested in Virta, a health-focused startup. That round was led by Goodwater Capital, a VC firm based in San Mateo, California. Goodwater had already been the lead investor in Viva Republica’s Series B round of funding.
Kakao, the Korean messaging company, and Coupang, an eCommerce startup in the country, are also Goodwater portfolio companies. Bessemer Venture Partners, Altos Ventures and Partech Ventures also participated in the Series C round. To date, Viva Republica has raised $76 million.
Eric Kim, a Goodwater Capital partner told TechCrunch that Viva Republica is on a “clear path to it becoming one of Asia’s most significant FinTech unicorns.” He went on to note that “before Toss, users required five passwords and around 37 clicks to transfer $10. With Toss, users need just one password and three steps to transfer up to KRW 500,000 ($430).”
Since Toss was founded, it has moved beyond peer-to-peer transfers and has expanded into consumer financing. It also launched a financial dashboard, credit scoring and provides microloans. The aim of the startup is to make financial services as easy as possible in Korea.
During 2017, Toss plans to expand, gearing up to launch a loan marketplace, microinsurance and cross-border money transfers, noted the report. A large portion of its latest round of funding will go to those initiatives and to build awareness of the different services Toss offers.
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