Fintech firm Viva Republica secures $48M from PayPal and others

Viva Republica, a South Korean fintech firm, last week closed a KRW 55 billion ($48 million) Series C round of funding, which saw participation of VC firm Goodwater Capital and US-based payment giant PayPal, TechCrunch reported.

With this, Viva Republica’s total funding now stands at $76 million. Goodwater Capital partner Eric Kim told TechCrunch that Viva Republic is on “a clear path to it becoming one of Asia’s most significant fintech unicorns.”

The company is well-known for Toss, a financial services platform that has processed over $3 billion in transactions from a base of 6 million registered users. Founder SG Lee is planning to expand the business further. He told TechCrunch that Toss will introduce a loan marketplace in order to offer further credit options, micro-insurance, and TransferWise-style cross-border money transfers. A major part of the new funding will go towards this. The funding will also be used to increase awareness of the Toss service.

“Toss is on track to serve 50 percent of Korea’s millennials by the end of this year and have a solid product road map to launch services for all user groups as well,” Goodwater Capital’s Kim said in a statement.

Lee also revealed plans of going international this year, with initial focus likely on Southeast Asia.

“We can learn a lot,” Lee said. “Their past history is quite similar to where we are now. When we have critical mass in Korea then we will consider how to attack global markets.”