Salmon, a Philippines-based consumer fintech startup backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, has announced raising $30 million in its Series A-2 equity round.
The startup is registered in the UAE and operates in the Philippines via three subsidiaries under the Salmon brand.
The round was backed by some of its key investors, including IFC and Abu Dhabi-based alternative investment firm Lunate.
Salmon enables customers to access financial products from SEC-registered partners, including online lending platform Sunprime Finance and financial services firm FHL Financing Company.
The company, which operates a licensed bank in the Philippines, said it will use the fresh funds to continue scaling its lending business and launch new products targeting the 50 million unbanked Filipinos.
A portion of the proceeds will also bolster the company’s marketing activities at thousands of retail locations across the Philippines, as well as expand its online offering, Salmon said.
It also intends to allocate a portion of the proceeds to strengthen the capital base of the Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna), with plans to increase the bank’s total capital to 1.2 billion pesos ($26.5 million) by the end of 2025.
Salmon was founded in July 2022 by Pavel Fedorov, George Chesakov, and Raffy Montemayor.
In July last year, it secured a $7 million investment from IFC and another $20 million debt facility from US-based emerging markets specialist investor Argentum Creek Partners last year.
“With this latest investment round, we are positioned to scale our operations even further, bring new products to market, and deepen our partnerships across the financial ecosystem,” said Salmon co-founder Pavel Fedorov.
Salmon’s funding comes as Southeast Asian startup fundraising dropped to a four-month low in August, according to proprietary data compiled by DealStreetAsia, highlighting a continued slowdown in the region since the post-pandemic recovery phase.
Startups in the region raised just $314 million in equity funding last month, down 38% from July, according to the data. The number of deals also dipped by 13% to 46 from a month earlier.
