Viva Republica (Toss)
US$7.0Bsuper-app / internet bank
Seoul · founded 2013
Viva Republica
Asia-Pacific · GDP rank #11
South Korea
KR · KRW @ 0.0006580/USD
South Korea has the most card-intense consumer economy in the G20: credit-card spending alone runs at roughly 90% of nominal GDP, supported by a three-decade policy stack of tax credits for card use, mandatory acceptance and subsidised merchant pricing. Super-app wallets (KakaoPay, Naver Pay, Toss) sit on top of cards as their settlement backbone rather than displacing them. Project Han-gang's Phase 2 went live in March 2026 with nine banks testing won-pegged deposit tokens, while the new BOK governor has publicly prioritised CBDC and bank tokens over stablecoins.
Tab 07
Fintech & disruption
South Korea's fintech ecosystem is concentrated around three super-apps (Kakao, Naver, Toss) and a handful of internet-only banks (KakaoBank, Toss Bank, K Bank). KakaoBank and K Bank have gone public on the KOSPI; Toss's parent, Viva Republica, is preparing a listing after the 2024 valuation reset. Venture funding held up better than most Asian markets during 2022-24 thanks to sovereign and corporate LP participation. Cross-border expansion — particularly into Southeast Asia — is a strategic priority.
Fintech funding · LTM
US$1.6B▲ +4% vs Apr 2024–Mar 2025
USD · Apr 2025–Mar 2026
Largest unicorn
₩11.8T
KakaoBank
Unicorns
KakaoPay
₩4.9Tsuper-app wallet
Seoul · founded 2017
KakaoPay
KakaoBank
₩11.8Tinternet-only bank
Seongnam · founded 2016
KakaoBank
Dunamu (Upbit)
₩4.0Tcrypto exchange
Seoul · founded 2012
Dunamu
Danal
₩480Bmobile payments / merchant aggregation
Seongnam · founded 1997
Danal
Funding
Largest disclosed rounds · LTM
Rounds shown are the largest disclosed in the last twelve months. Private markets remain opaque — valuations at follow-on are the most reliable signal of investor conviction.
Round size
- Toss Bank₩500B
Capital Injection · 2025-10-10
Emerging categories
Cross-border super-app QR acceptance (Korea-SEA)
scaling- Kakao Settlebank
- Naver Financial + LINE Pay
- Toss Payments
BOK-MOEF enabled outbound QR payments from Korean wallets at selected foreign merchants in 2023; extensions to Singapore (via PayNow linkage), Indonesia (QRIS) and Thailand (PromptPay) live through 2025.
Tokenised deposits and bank-issued stablecoins
emerging- KB Kookmin Bank
- Shinhan Bank
- Hana Bank
- Woori Bank
Project Han-gang enables tokenised-deposit wholesale settlement among participating banks; retail stablecoin rollout paused pending wider regulatory framework.
- ▌KakaoTalk + KakaoPay (chat-embedded P2P and P2M)
- ▌Coupang + Rocket Pay (marketplace-embedded wallet)
- ▌Baedal Minjok + BaeminPay (delivery-embedded wallet)
- ▌Samsung Pay + Samsung Electronics (device-embedded wallet)