Singapore-based Tonik Financial has raised around $6 million in a fresh round of funding to launch its digital banking unit in the Philippines.
Investors who took part in the funding round for Tonik include venture capital firm Insignia Ventures Partners and Credence Partners. Regional angel investors also participated in the funding round.
With regard to the fresh funding round, Greg Krasnov, founder and chief executive at TONIK told the media, “We are honored to have secured the backing of such prominent regional investors as Insignia and Credence. Over 70 percent of the adult population in the Philippines remains unbanked, and market research indicates that over 50 percent of existing bank clients would be keen to switch their deposits to a pure-play digital contender. We look forward to working with our new investors to improve financial inclusion in the country.”
Earlier this year, Tonik Financial announced that its subsidiary Tonik Digital Bank received approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), to provide digital banking services in the country.
Tonik is expected to go online in the Philippines this year. It claims to be the first fully digital bank in the region and one of the very few globally to be operating on the basis of its own bank licence.
To launch its digital bank in the Philippines, Tonik is partnering with Finastra to use its cloud platform to power its end-to-end core banking capabilities. Global neobanks such as Gravity and Revverbank also use Finastra’s cloud platform.
Traditional banks such as CIMB, ING and MayBank have also launched their own digital banking unit in the Philippines.