Toss Achieves First Monthly Profit Since Inception... Enters Full-Scale Growth Trajectory

35-Fold Increase in Operating Revenue Over 3 Years
Expanded to 400 Employees in Just Over a Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Viva Republica (Toss), which operates the mobile financial service Toss, announced on the 7th that it has achieved its first monthly profit since the company's establishment.

This is the first time Toss has recorded a profit on a monthly basis. Toss did not disclose the specific profit amount. It plans to reveal it as part of its earnings announcement.

However, Toss stated that it has recorded about a 35-fold increase in operating revenue over the past three years. Toss's operating revenue started at 3.4 billion KRW in 2016, when monetization began in earnest, and reached 118.7 billion KRW last year.

As Toss has grown into the largest domestic mobile financial platform with 17 million users, 83% of its operating revenue this year was generated based on business-to-business (B2B) transactions with partner financial companies and online businesses. Toss expects this proportion and scale to expand further and to enter a full-fledged profit growth trajectory.

Toss is pursuing a strategy to secure leadership in the mobile financial industry through business diversification. Toss is expanding its activities not only as a financial platform but also by entering internet-only banking, securities, and payment gateway (PG) businesses. The total market size estimated by Toss in these fields reaches 52 trillion KRW.

Fueled by growth, the organization has also rapidly expanded. The number of employees increased from 180 at the beginning of last year to about 400 as of last month. Aggressive hiring of hundreds of employees is underway across all affiliates, including Toss.

Toss stated that this external expansion is progressing at a much faster pace compared to domestic and global fintech (finance + technology) companies. Looking at the representative service of remittance, Toss achieved a cumulative remittance amount of 10 trillion KRW in 2017, just three years after launch, whereas the U.S. service 'Venmo' took seven years to reach the same milestone. Currently, the monthly remittance amount through Toss is 4.5 trillion KRW, with a cumulative remittance amount reaching 90 trillion KRW. Toss's own analysis shows that last year, Toss accounted for 9.2% of online transactions across all financial sectors in Korea based on the number of remittance transactions.

Lee Seung-geon, CEO of Toss, said, "Toss started with simple remittance and has evolved into a 'super application' offering more than 40 financial services. Through its role as a mobile branch connecting financial companies and users, it has established itself as the fastest and most efficient channel for financial companies to reach customers." He emphasized, "In particular, the domestic financial industry is expected to accelerate its transition to online and non-face-to-face services starting this year, and following this trend, Toss is expected to enter a full-fledged profit growth trajectory."

The CEO also stated, "With this first monthly profit achievement, it seems we have proven Toss's financial platform business model," and added, "We will further realize Toss's vision of creating new standards in finance in a more full-fledged manner."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.