South Korean Viva Republica is gearing up to getting an online banking licence after signing an agreement with Standard Chartered Bank Korea.
Viva Republica is the company behind peer-to-peer money transfer app Toss. The business was given a $2.2bn valuation in August after closing a $64m Series F round.
But it is looking to scale further with its new partnership. According to Pulse News, the two firms have formed a partnership to file for a preliminary licence for the country’s third internet-only bank.
At the same time, Viva Republica has been picked as the preferred bidder for LG Uplus Corp.’s payment gateway service unit, according to industry sources Pulse News spoke with. Viva Republica apparently offered to pay ₩300bn ($252.96m) for the unit.
In June 2018, Viva Republica closed a $40m funding round led by long-term investor GIC and Sequia China, the seed-stage venture capital firm.
That round was on the back of a 2016 $23.7m capital injection.
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