Tonik becomes the Philippines' first neobank to secure digital bank licence

DIGITAL-ONLY neobank Tonik has secured a digital bank licence from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the first for any private and purely digital bank in the Philippines.

"Securing a digital banking licence is one of this year's anticipated milestones for us," said Greg Krasnov, Tonik's chief executive officer and founder. "This will help us further strengthen our foothold in the neobanking space through accelerating the rollout of our additional lending and payment products."

This comes off Tonik's successful public launch in March, which saw it secure over one billion pesos (S$27.8 million) in retail deposits in less than a month. Tonik also recently raised US$17 million in Pre-Series B funding.

Led by Singapore's iGlobe Partners, the round featured participation from existing shareholders Sequoia India, Altara Ventures, and Insignia Venture Partners, as well as new investors Citius, Baring Vostok Capital Partners, and multiple Philippine family offices.

Tonik is supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and deposits are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation. Its unique cloud-based solution is powered by global financial technology leaders such as Mastercard, Amazon Web Services, and Finastra.