South Korea’s Viva Republica, an operator of local peer-to-peer payment app Toss that drew investment from U.S. venture capital last month will shell out 100 million won ($89,238) worth stock options each to its 180 employees and raise their annual salary by 50 percent as an incentive policy.

The company announced Monday that that it will provide 5,000 shares to each incumbent worker who will be able to exercise options in 50 percent in two years and fully in four years. It will also give the same stock option to 120 newcomers after working for a certain period of time.

In addition, it has decided to give a 50 percent salary raise to all employees this year. New workers joining the company this year will also benefit from the renewed wage payment system.

“This is our incentive policy to attract outstanding workers,” said Lee Seung-gun, chief executive and founder of Viva Republica. “We are willing to provide reasonable compensation for our workers’ hard work and sacrifice and encourage them to join hands to tide over the difficulties ahead together.”

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 its registered users exceeded 11 million, with cumulative remittance transactions surpassing 30 trillion won. Its sales have been on a steady increase from 3.5 billion won in 2016, 20 billion won in 2017 and 56 billion won in 2018.

Last December, it announced it drew $80 million investment from U.S. venture capital companies including Kleiner Perkins and Rabbit Capital. This was the first investment by the two American venture firms in a Korean start-up, according to Viva Republica. The latest investment brought the Korean start-up’s total funding to 220 billion won, and its value is estimated to be worth 1.3 trillion won.

By Kim Tae-sung and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]