Salmon raises $100M to expand digital credit in the Philippines

Manila-based consumer finance app Salmon has secured $100M in a new funding round to accelerate its growth in the Philippines. The capital structure consists of:

• $60 million in equity
• $40 million in debt

Investors in this round include Spice Expeditions, Washington University Investment Management Company, Moore Strategic Ventures, and FJ Labs. Previous backers include IFC, ADQ, Lunate, and Antler VC.

Salmon is targeting underbanked consumers in the Philippines who have little to no credit history. To secure its banking license, the company acquired a rural bank—a specific type of banking license in the Philippines—in January 2024. The acquired bank was originally established in 1963. Through its subsidiary, Salmon Bank, the company offers term deposits at up to 8% interest. It is building a suite of around seven or eight different products, including a credit product with up to a 62-day grace period.

Co-founder Pavel Fedorov noted that traditional banks cannot solve this problem due to the credit market infrastructure in the Philippines. Fedorov explained that instead of relying on traditional credit history, Salmon scores borrowers in real time using behavioral and digital data. This allows customers to fill out a form on their phone, upload documents, and receive a loan decision in 20 seconds.

Salmon was founded by Pavel Fedorov, George Chesakov, and Raffy Montemayor, who all previously worked at the digital bank Tinkoff. Montemayor led Tinkoff’s expansion in the Philippines starting in 2016, and the founders parted ways with the bank in March 2022 to launch Salmon. Fedorov noted that they chose the region because they “saw that the Philippines and broader Southeast Asia were proving themselves in terms of innovation.”

To date, Salmon has raised $310 million in total capital, which includes $160 million in equity and $150 million through bonds. For its recent debt financing, the company sourced the capital from the Nordic bond market, the region’s specialized market for debt issuance. If the company executes well in the Philippines, Fedorov stated that Salmon will probably look to expand internationally in the next two years.

Why it matters

Salmon is addressing the credit gap in the Philippines by bypassing traditional banking infrastructure, which the company argues is ill-equipped to serve the underbanked population. By utilizing real-time behavioral and digital data, the startup plans to scale its digital lending platform to reach consumers who lack traditional credit histories.