Kakao Pay Corp., the online payment unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., said Tuesday it swung to the black last year thanks to increased financial income.

Kakao Pay logged a net profit of 27.5 billion won ($22 million) on a consolidated basis in 2022, turning from a loss of 33.9 billion won a year earlier, according to its regulatory filing.

Revenue rose 13.7 percent on-year to 521.7 billion won from 458.6 billion won, while its operating loss expanded to 45.5 billion won from 27.2 billion won over the cited period.

The company attributed the on-year growth to increased financial income stemming from its cash deposit amid a rate hike.

Its sales growth was led by an expansion in its transaction service business, which grew 27 percent on-year, Kakao Pay added.

The company said the volume of transactions in 2022 amounted to 118 trillion won.

The service's accumulated users reached 39.44 million, with monthly active users tallied at 23.02 million. The average number of annual transactions per user climbed 7 percent to 101.4 last year.

The earnings report was released before the market opened. (Yonhap)