E9pay Applies for KOSDAQ Preliminary Listing Review..."Aiming for Cross-Border Financial Platform Beyond Overseas Remittance"

Cross-border digital financial platform company E9pay has officially begun its push for an initial public offering (IPO) by submitting a preliminary review application for listing on KOSDAQ. Leveraging its foreign customer base secured through overseas remittance and its global financial network, the company aims to expand its business scope to payments, commerce, and everyday financial services, evolving into a comprehensive digital financial platform.

On the 27th, E9pay announced that it had submitted its preliminary review application for KOSDAQ listing to the Korea Exchange. The lead underwriter for the listing is Korea Investment & Securities.

E9pay is a fintech company that obtained South Korea’s first small-scale overseas remittance license in 2017. Starting with overseas remittance services for foreigners residing in Korea, it has since expanded its offerings to include individual and corporate remittances, mobile wallets and prepaid cards, authentication, and account and card services.

The company has continued to achieve strong growth. Last year, E9pay recorded revenue of 64.7 billion won, operating profit of 23.7 billion won, and net profit of 19.6 billion won. Its operating margin reached 36.7%, and its net margin stood at 30.3%.

Over the past five years, both revenue and operating profit have grown at an average annual rate of approximately 28% and 33%, respectively. Notably, last year, E9pay's operating profit was about 2.8 times higher than that of other overseas remittance companies with similar revenue size, highlighting its strong profitability.

The core of this profitability lies in its bidirectional remittance structure, which encompasses both outbound and inbound remittances. By operating outbound remittance from Korea to overseas and inbound remittance from overseas to Korea concurrently, E9pay offsets bidirectional fund flows. This approach helps reduce the pre-funding burden and foreign exchange procurement costs inherent in the overseas remittance business, while also enhancing its competitiveness in exchange rates and transaction fees.

Direct networks established with global financial institutions are also cited as competitive advantages. E9pay has built a direct network with J.P. Morgan and has partnerships with Shinhan Bank, Indonesia’s BRI, Vietnam’s VCB, Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank, and Cambodia’s ABA Bank and Acleda Bank. This structure lowers dependence on overseas intermediaries, leading to improved cost and processing efficiency for remittances.

Currently, the company’s annual remittance volume exceeds 3.7 trillion won, with more than 4.4 million transactions processed. E9pay provides remittance services to over 126 countries and supports 20 languages. Its total accumulated membership surpasses 600,000 and its number of active customers exceeds 190,000.

E9pay is also expanding its platform business by leveraging the customer base built through overseas remittance. Through its foreigner-focused mobile wallet and prepaid card service "ToKpay,” the company offers domestic payment and public transportation services and supports easy top-up functionality linked to users' accounts in their home countries.

In addition, it is broadening its business areas to include a foreigner-exclusive mobile commerce platform "ToKmarket," as well as electronic signature authentication and everyday financial services such as account, card, and loan offerings.

With the upcoming listing, E9pay plans to connect the foreign customer base and global financial infrastructure secured from its overseas remittance business to payments, commerce, and everyday financial services. The company’s strategy is to transform its business structure, going beyond simple overseas remittance services to become a cross-border digital financial platform that supports both the financial and daily living needs of foreigners residing in Korea.

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