Viva Republica, a South Korean operator of peer-to-peer payment app Toss, announced Monday that it drew $80 million investment from U.S. venture capital companies including Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital.

This is the first investment by the two American fintech venture firms in a Korean startup, the company said. The investment brings Viva Republica’s total funding to 220 billion won ($195.6 million). Its corporate value is estimated at $1.2 billion, growing about 10 times from $115.5 million in March last year when it attracted $48 million from a consortium consisting of Paypal and Silicon Valley venture capital firms.

Kleiner Perkins’ general partner Noah Knauf said he expects Toss would enhance safety and convenience of users’ financial experiences based on its outstanding service portfolio, according to Viva Republica. Nikolay Kostov, a partner at Ribbit Capital, said he sees a great potential in Toss’ future growth and profitability, the firm said.

Founded in February 2015, Toss is a mobile app that allows users to conduct peer-to-peer money transfers, access their accounts, manage credit scores, take out loans, and use insurance and card finance services. The number of registered users exceeded 10 million last month, with cumulative remittance transactions surpassing 2.8 trillion won.

By Jung Joo-won and Choi Mira

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