Customers include Hunter Mobile! Taiwanese startup Tokenz secures a NT$200 million investment and moves to capture cross-border payment MoR business opportunities

A cross-border payment startup founded by Taiwanese, Tokenz, has completed a 1 billion yen Series A funding round. Benefiting from Japan's opening of third-party payments, its MoR platform is seizing business opportunities, with funds allocated for research and development and global expansion.

Tokenz, a cross-border payment startup, announced on June 2nd that it has completed a Series A funding round totaling 1 billion yen (approximately NT$197M). The round was led by Headline Asia, with SBI Investment and New Commerce Ventures participating as new investors, alongside existing investors Heartland Capital, Coral Capital, U.S. venture firm NEA (New Enterprise Associates), as well as Shinhan Venture Investment and the "Shinhan-GB" fund jointly operated by Shinhan Venture Investment and Global Brain, all increasing their stakes.

The funds will be used to accelerate product development, expand a global support system centered on Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, the U.S., and Lithuania, and to speed up the recruitment of top professionals in settlement and financial technology (FinTech).

Tokenz was founded by Taiwanese Lin Bo-Huan (pictured above). Its core service is a Merchant of Record (MoR) platform, which, in simple terms, helps cross-border service providers complete processes including multi-country payment integration, foreign currency settlement, fund refunds, fraud prevention, risk management, legal currency exchange, and tax reporting.

At this pivotal moment, completing fundraising is crucial. Japan's "Smartphone Software Competition Promotion Law" (commonly known as the "Smartphone New Law") will fully take effect in December 2025, mandating the解除Apple/Google's app revenue monopoly, leading to a surge in external app billing demands. However, this also brings complex procedures, which are at the core of Tokenz's MoR model.

30% commission, who benefits?

For any company wanting to sell games or digital content overseas, collecting payments has never been easy.

Just enabling consumers to pay involves understanding local payment habits: Japanese prefer convenience store payments, Southeast Asia often use e-wallets, and Europe has various local card types. After agreeing on payment methods, there are tax considerations: each cross-border sale may trigger VAT or GST reporting obligations in different countries. Figuring out which markets require prior registration alone can keep legal teams busy for months. After transactions, issues like refunds, fraud detection, and consumer data protection are also waiting to be addressed.

This is a complete cross-border compliance infrastructure, but most small and medium developers lack the capacity to build it themselves.

A bigger pain point is the platform commissions from Apple and Google. Historically, mobile games and app monetization almost exclusively relied on official app stores, with platform fees reaching up to 30%, an industry hidden tax.

With Japan's "Smartphone New Law" passing in December 2025, this situation is beginning to loosen. The regulation mandates Apple and Google to open up third-party payments and external app billing, giving businesses the first opportunity to bypass platforms and collect directly from consumers via their own online stores. But this also introduces more complex tax and compliance responsibilities—those troubles previously handled by platforms now fall entirely on the businesses.

Tokenz's MoR platform, designed specifically for game companies, video streaming, comics, and digital content providers, is a legally authorized corporate entity that acts as a reseller, representing the company to sell digital products directly to end consumers. The company only needs to focus on selling the products; all other processes are managed by Tokenz.

Currently, Tokenz supports over 200 payment methods, and after this funding round, plans to expand to about 300. It is already adopted by dozens of domestic and international companies, including Japan’s well-known anime and game publisher Bushiroad’s《HUNTERxHUNTER NENxSURVIVOR》, WonderPlanet’s《Crash Fever》, and the e-sports strategy platform Game8 (through its joint venture S8 Plus with SP.LINKS, which has formed a MoR business alliance).

Tokenz to expand in Asia, North America, and AI

Currently, Tokenz has focused on Japan and Taiwan for business and engineering staffing, with about 20 employees worldwide. Funds will be used for three main areas: product development (expanding payment options to around 300 types, enhancing AI-assisted fraud detection and tax optimization), global expansion (existing offices in Japan, Singapore, the U.S., Lithuania, and Taiwan), and recruiting payment and FinTech professionals.

Next, Tokenz plans to actively expand into China, Korea, and other Asian markets, aiming to grow its client base to hundreds within a few years. The wave of Japanese and Chinese game companies licensing IP for overseas expansion is also a favorable structural trend.

"The market has already given us a clear answer: regional expertise is key. We will focus more resources on product deepening, compliance expansion, and serving our existing merchant partners," said Lin Bo-Huan, who also completed a full website and social media overhaul.

• This article is reprinted with permission from 《Startup Gathering》
• Original title: 《Taiwanese-founded Payment Startup Tokenz Completes 200 Million Yen Series A, Targets Cross-Border Payment Opportunities from Japan’s New Law》
• Original author: Zeng Ling-Huai