Salmon Group, a technology-driven financial company building a banking and lending platform across Southeast Asia, expects to enhance its growth in the Philippines with the successful USD100 million new financing round.
The transaction was significantly oversubscribed, underscoring strong investor confidence in Salmon’s business model and its ability to execute its vision in one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic consumer finance markets.
The Philippine consumer finance market presents a highly compelling opportunity with a large underbanked population and rapidly expanding digital adoption of financial services. Salmon Group, operating through its BSP-licensed bank and SEC-licensed financing company, in just three years of operations has established itself as a key challenger to legacy banks, with relentless focus on improving customer experience and differentiating itself with the speed and quality of execution of its vision.
The equity component totals USD60 million and features a roster of prominent US-based venture investors. The round was led by Spice Expeditions; it also includes participation from Washington University Investment Management Company (WUIMC), Moore Strategic Ventures, FJ Labs, and other existing investors of Salmon. The proceeds will be deployed to accelerate Salmon’s product expansion, deepen its distribution network across the Philippines, further enhance the capitalization of Salmon Bank, and grow the overall balance sheet capacity of Salmon Group.
“This round is validation of what we have been building – an always-on bank and financial services super-app for every Filipino, run with discipline and a long-term mindset. By now Salmon App is one of most loved (4.8 in App Store and Google Play) financial mobile apps in the country and one the most reliable with 99.9% uptime. We offer the best deals in the market – Salmon Credit has the longest grace period of up to 62 days, Salmon Bank offers one of the most appealing 8% term deposit rates, and exciting new products will soon offer fantastic deals to our customers. We are proud to have some of the world’s most respected investors joining us for this next chapter of growth. The capital will allow us to move faster on every front: more products, more reach, even greater capitalization of Salmon Bank, and better experience for our customers,” said Pavel Fedorov, Co-Founder of Salmon Group.
Alongside the equity round, Salmon Group successfully issued USD40 million in public bonds, priced at an effective yield of 13.7 percent within its existing USD150 million Nordic bond program. The offering placed with leading global fixed income investors was executed amid volatile global capital market conditions, and its successful issuance reflects the market’s recognition of Salmon’s credit quality and growth fundamentals. The bond proceeds will support the continued scaling of Salmon’s lending portfolio.
