Viva Republica seeks new capital worth $266 mn for mobile brokerage service

South Korea’s Viva Republica, the operator of the country’s popular peer-to-peer money transfer app Toss, seeks to raise capital to enhance the market competitiveness of its newly launched brokerage arm Toss Securities.

According to investment banking sources on Tuesday, Viva Republica recently has named Bank of America Merrill Lynch as the lead manager to attract an estimated 300 billion won ($265.7 million) in new funding from investors.

The fintech company reviewed new funding scheme with JP Morgan until last year but replaced the advisor in hopes to draw investment from global venture capitals, said a source from the market.

With the new funding, Viva Republica is expected to focus more on expanding its mobile brokerage service of Toss Securities, which has been active in luring customers recently.

The brokerage unit achieved a milestone of 2 million new account openings as of April 16 in just a month after the launch of own mobile trading system in March. To raise its market share, it now is in need of additional working capital.

Toss Securities, launched with an initial capital of 32 billion won, has raised its capital to 57 billion won as of the first quarter. It will be continuously scaled up, market experts expect.

Viva Republica hopes to be valued at more than 5 trillion won with the new funding scheme as it saw a surge in revenue with reduced losses. It reported an operating loss of 72.5 billion won last year, narrowing 37.1 percent from the previous year, with sales more than tripled to 389.8 billion won.

In August last year, the fintech company was valued at 3.1 trillion won after drawing 206 billion won in new funding from existing investors, the largest for a single round since its inception. The investors joining the round include Sequoia Capital China, Kleiner Perkins and Altos Ventures.

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