Salmon Raises $88 Million to Grow Its Business in the Philippines, Sets up a $150 Million Nordic Bond Framework Agreement for Scaling up
MANILA, Philippines--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Salmon Group Ltd ('Salmon'), a leading emerging markets financial services firm, operating a financing company and BSP-regulated bank in the Philippines, announces the completion of a $88MM fundraise to double down on its commitment to bring cutting-edge financial services and simplify access to credit across Southeast Asia.
The funding transaction consists of the $60MM drawdown under a 3-year $150MM Nordic bond framework agreement and $28MM of new equity raised from blue-chip US institutional investors, Antler Elevate as well as existing shareholders of Salmon. The list of existing investors of Salmon includes International Finance Corporation, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi ADQ/Lunate, Northstar, Back in Black Capital and prominent Filipino investors.
The equity round was led by Spice Expeditions, LP ('Spice'), a venture capital firm focused on global financial services. Spice was founded by Nick Huber, who was a partner at Ribbit Capital prior to launching the firm in 2024. The bond transaction marks the first-ever Nordic bond issuance by a technology firm out of Southeast Asia. At $88MM of combined funding the transaction is one of the largest recent investments in the Philippines financial technology industry, propelling Salmon to the top ranks of challenger banks in the Philippines.
Commenting on the transaction, Pavel Fedorov, Co-founder of Salmon, noted that 'Salmon is on a mission to revolutionise banking in Southeast Asia. For too long the legacy banks in the region provided sub-standard product, service and customer experience, and the Philippines is the case in point of this. At Salmon, we believe in the quality of our technology and proprietary AI solutions to bring customers better products, of which the most empowering is access to credit. Even though Salmon is only two and a half years old, today we have one of the highest-rated financial service applications in the Philippines (rated 4.8/4.7 in App Store/Google Play), are present both online and at 3,000+ locations across the country and offer four consumer credit products that unlock access to better lives for millions. The 8.88% deposit rate offered by our BSP-regulated bank is the highest in the Philippines as we pass cost efficiencies of our tech-centric model and limited branch infrastructure directly to bank depositors. With successful closing of this transaction and with the strength of Salmon's one-of-a-kind team, we will be taking Salmon to leadership positions in the financial services industry across Southeast Asia. We are grateful to new and existing investors for their trust and support of our vision.'
About Salmon
Salmon Group Ltd. operates a BSP-regulated bank (the Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa Laguna), and SEC-licensed lending companies in the Philippines. The company is on a mission to build the best credit-led technology-centric bank in Southeast Asia with the Philippines representing its first market of operation.
Founded in July 2022 by banking and technology veterans Pavel Fedorov, George Chesakov and Raffy Montemayor, Salmon uses AI-enabled technology and a proprietary credit engine to offer consumer credit (Salmon Credit, Salmon Installment, and Salmon Cash Loans), providing differentiated simplicity, quality of service and convenience to its customers. Salmon's mobile application is rated 4.8/4.7 in App Store/Google Play – one of the highest ratings for a financial services app in the Philippines; 92% of Salmon customers recommend its services to their friends and family. In 2024, Salmon's BSP-regulated bank on the back of the strength of its consumer loan portfolio launched a Salmon time savings deposit, which at 8.88% offers one of the most appealing deposit rates across the Philippines.
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