Korean Investment App Toss Raises $405M

South Korean investment app Toss has raised $405 million in a Series G funding round.

The round lifts the company’s valuation to a reported 9.1 trillion won ($7.1 billion), up from 8.5 trillion won ($6.6 billion) last June, notable at a time when FinTechs are slashing valuations and struggling to find funding, according to a report from TechCrunch.

The company reportedly plans to use the funds to invest in its Toss Bank service and Toss Securities, its Robinhood-esque investment service, while also boosting its online payment and digital lending services.

As PYMNTS has written, Toss is one of a handful of companies competing to dominate the South Korean super app market. The idea behind a super app is to “become a one-stop shop, a digital front door that connects a continuum of activities, from commerce to buying insurance to investing to hailing a ride,” we wrote in March.

According to the company website, Toss has 22 million subscribers, more than 50 million services, and more than 50 services launched. The company has said that more than 80% of people in their 20s and more than 60% of people in their 30s use Toss.

And that’s important these days, as younger people seem to be more drawn to super apps, as PYMNTS research has found.

“In this age of convenience, connected devices that enable consumers to consolidate all manner of services into a single app, from buying groceries and booking flight tickets to monitoring bank transactions and trading crypto, have never been more popular among connected consumers,” we wrote recently.

Research from our October study “Super Apps for the Super Connected,” published in collaboration with PayPal, found that 350 million internet users across the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Germany own a median of 6.5 of these devices.

Toss’ Series G is happening at the end of a year that has seen a downturn in funding, which has led to a decline in initial public offerings (IPOs) this year, as deals have dipped to levels not seen since the financial crisis of 2008.

Just $207 billion has been raised from IPOs in 2022, down 68% from last year. Meanwhile, research by PYMNTS indicates that next year will not be a good one for FinTechs seeking to go public via special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) mergers.

Data showed the pace of SPAC deals falling to the low-single-digits in most cases, particularly in the payments, shopping, and work-related verticals.