Tonik, the Philippines’ digital-only neobank, recently announced that it has achieved steady growth in its consolidated loan portfolio and revenue in the first half of 2024.
In 2023, Tonik claims that it “became the first non-captive digital bank in the Philippines to achieve a major milestone of reaching positive lending unit profitability across its three lending product lines – Salary Loans, Shop Installment Loans and Cash Loans.”
This has reportedly enabled Tonik to accelerate “the scaling of its new loan production, which as of June 2024 jumped by +133% year-on-year.”
This production growth “led to Tonik’s loan portfolio expanding by +94% in the twelve months ending June 2024.”
Tonik’s consumer loan portfolio growth rate “in the last twelve months far surpasses both that of the digital bank sector, which grew its loan portfolio by only 10%, and the broader banking sector’s consumer loans, which increased by 18% during the last twelve months.”
The Annualized Revenue Run Rate (ARR) “at the end of Q2 2024 reached USD 19 million, powered by a +78% year-on-year increase in lending income.”
The growth in the loan portfolio and revenue “has also led to a reduction in cash burn, providing strong visibility to Tonik’s path to profitability, which is expected in 2025.”
As the holder of the digital bank license in the Philippines, and the “best funded” fintech startup in the country with over $160 million raised, Tonik has “made it its mission to make bank credit accessible to all Filipinos.”
Loans for household consumption account “for only 14% of the total loan portfolio of the banking sector in the Philippines and are at the lowest level in relation to GDP compared to most other Southeast Asian countries.”
This market supply dislocation represents “a $50 billion credit inclusion market, and a multi-billion dollar balance sheet opportunity for Tonik as the first mover in this sector.”
Tonik further claims that it “has become the only digital bank so far to roll out three consumer lending product groups and bring them to positive profitability through relentless focus on credit risk and operational efficiency.”
Tonik’s scale-up has reportedly “resulted in the onboarding of over 1.5 million customers to-date, while achieving a high retention rate with over 40% of Tonik’s repeat loan offers being taken up by its clients.”
Tonik’s competitive advantage is underlined “by its leadership in customer experience (CX) and customer service.”
Greg Krasnov, the Founder and CEO of Tonik Digital Bank commented:
“While metrics such as deposits, number of transactions, or customer count are important, these are all loss generating activities, and therefore they do not capture the essence of a profitability strategy of a digital bank. At the end of the day, a bank needs to become profitable, and in a market like Philippines that is only possible through aggressively solving for unit profitability and growth on mass market consumer lending / credit inclusion segment.”
As noted in the update:
“Our exceptional 1H 2024 results are a strong validation of our team’s revolutionary efforts to make mass market consumer lending in the Philippines profitable and massively scalable within the framework of a regulated deposit-taking bank institution and on the basis of a digital-first platform. We’re leading the way in digital banking, and we’re proud to be making a real difference in people’s lives.”
As covered, Tonik says that it is “the first digital-only neobank in the Philippines, providing loan, deposit, and payment products to consumers on a highly secure digital banking platform.”
The neobank explains that it “operates based on the first digital bank license issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).”