Greg Krasnov of Tonik Joins the Endeavor Network

Endeavor selected the Philippines’ Greg Krasnov of Tonik at the 27th Virtual International Selection Panel (vISP) held May 23-25, 2022. The panel included Peng Ong (Co-founder & Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures), Jason Green (Founding General Partner of Emergence Capital Partners and Endeavor Global Board Member), Mike Hennessey (Managing Director of BlueBanyan), Vinnie Lauria (Managing Partner of Golden Gate Ventures), Daniel Vogel (Co-founder & CEO of Bitso and Endeavor Entrepreneur), and Ettore Leale (Managing Partner of Xplorer Capital).

Greg earned his way through college, taking on coding and PC repair jobs while working towards his degrees from Cambridge University (Masters of Philosophy, International Relations) and Arizona State University (Bachelor of Science in Finance, Accounting, and Political Science). After graduating, he spent 10 years working in private equity at Bank of America (London) and Innova Capital (Warsaw). It was at this point, a decade into his PE career, that Greg returned to his entrepreneurial roots, starting his own Ukraine-based consumer bank in 2006. At Platinum Bank, Greg saw firsthand how Europe’s growing middle class leveraged their disposable income to improve their lives by taking loans. This gave him an idea for the next phase in his career, founding his next company, FORUM.

Following his exit for Platinum Bank, Greg took his expertise in consumer finance to Southeast Asia in 2014. There he founded FORUM, a Singapore-based investment firm through which he co-founded a number of successful fintech companies, including Credolab, FLOW, Solarhome, and AsiaKredit. For his pioneering work in the sector, Greg was named Fintech Director of the Year by the Asia Fintech Awards, as well as one of Singapore’s Top Fintech Leaders by the Singapore Fintech Association.

Through his experience running these companies, Greg identified the massive opportunity presented by digital only retail deposits with digital-only consumer lending portfolios and big-data-based advanced credit analytics. This led to discussions with the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2018 to develop what was then an entirely new form of license for a purely digital bank. Thus, Tonik was officially launched in March 2021. Tonik leverages its low cost of funding via government-insured retail deposits to achieve high net interest margins (NIMs). This tactical strategy, along with the extremely low operating costs associated with being a purely digital service, results in a high return on equity, as Tonik aims to achieve 70-80% ROE in the next two years.

Tonik aims to close the massive gap in consumer lending as the second Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) licensed neobank in the Philippines, offering a purely digital solution for scaling financial services. Through its state-of-the art, proprietary app, Tonik provides customers with the full range of consumer banking products including savings accounts, term deposits, loans, debit cards, and more.

The ISP is the culmination of a rigorous multi-step selection process to identify high-impact entrepreneurs who demonstrate the potential to leverage Endeavor’s resources and mentorship to create large-scale wealth and jobs, and are committed to reinvesting their time and money in their local entrepreneurship ecosystems to help others take off.

As part of Endeavor’s network, the newly selected entrepreneurs will gain access to comprehensive, strategic, global support services, including introductions to local and international business mentors, investors, and volunteers from Fortune 500 consulting firms who will help them address key needs.