Salmon Group Ltd. has closed a $100 million dual-tranche financing round to accelerate its lending and digital banking operations in the Philippines, drawing strong investor demand from U.S. venture capital and global fixed income markets in the same week.
Key Facts At A Glance
- Total round size: $100 million, structured as $60 million in equity and $40 million in public bonds
- Equity lead: Spice Expeditions, with participation from Washington University Investment Management Company, Moore Strategic Ventures, and FJ Labs
- Bond details: $40 million priced at an effective yield of 13.7 percent, issued under an existing $150 million Nordic bond program
- Both tranches described as significantly oversubscribed
- Salmon Bank’s total equity stood at PHP 1.6 billion as of April 2026, following a PHP 400 million capital injection completed that month
- Salmon Bank is targeting conversion from a rural banking license to a thrift banking license under Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas regulations
- Salmon Group was founded in July 2022 by former Tinkoff executives Pavel Fedorov, George Chesakov, and Raffy Montemayor
- Existing backers include the International Finance Corporation, ADQ/Lunate, and Antler
Salmon Group Closes Oversubscribed $100 Million Round
Salmon Group Ltd. announced on April 20, 2026, the closing of a $100 million financing round combining equity and public debt, with proceeds earmarked for product expansion, distribution network deepening, Salmon Bank capitalization, and overall balance sheet growth in the Philippines.
The dual-tranche structure marks a departure from the single-instrument raises that characterized Salmon’s earlier funding history. The company structured the round to diversify its capital base across two distinct investor classes, venture equity and institutional fixed income, in a single coordinated transaction. Both tranches were oversubscribed.
The $60 million equity component was led by Spice Expeditions and included Washington University Investment Management Company, Moore Strategic Ventures, and FJ Labs alongside existing investors. The concurrent $40 million public bond issuance was priced at a 13.7 percent effective yield within Salmon’s existing $150 million Nordic bond program. The bonds were placed with global fixed income investors despite volatile market conditions at the time of pricing.
A Three-Year Trajectory
Salmon Group was established in July 2022 by Pavel Fedorov, George Chesakov, and Raffy Montemayor, three former executives of Russian digital bank Tinkoff. Montemayor had been Tinkoff’s first employee in the Philippines and led its expansion in the country beginning in 2016. The founders launched Salmon after leaving Tinkoff in March 2022, identifying the Philippine consumer credit market as an addressable gap.
The company began with point-of-sale lending, securing a $16 million Series A in October 2022 led by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ alongside Filipino and European investors. A $20 million debt facility from U.S. private credit fund Argentem Creek followed in 2023. The International Finance Corporation joined the investor base thereafter, reflecting multilateral development finance interest in the company’s financial inclusion mandate.
In January 2024, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approved Salmon’s acquisition of a 59.7 percent controlling interest in the Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna), Inc., granting the company a licensed banking entity. The bank was subsequently renamed Salmon Bank (Rural Bank), Inc. and issued a Basic Electronic Payment and Financial Services license by the BSP.
The Path To A Thrift Banking License
The April 2026 financing round coincides with Salmon Bank’s effort to convert its rural banking license to a thrift banking classification under BSP regulations. A thrift banking license requires a minimum capital threshold of PHP 1.2 billion. In March 2026, Salmon Group infused PHP 400 million into the bank, bringing total equity to PHP 1.6 billion. Co-founder and bank chairman Raffy Montemayor had previously stated a target of reaching PHP 2 billion in total capital before the end of 2026 as part of the thrift license application.
The regulatory upgrade, if completed, would expand Salmon Bank’s permissible product set and allow the institution to more directly compete with established thrift and commercial banks in consumer lending, deposits, and card products.
Capital Deployment
Proceeds from the April 2026 round are intended to support four areas: acceleration of product expansion, deepening of Salmon’s distribution network across the Philippines, further capitalization of Salmon Bank, and growth of the group’s overall balance sheet capacity. The bond tranche is specifically designated for scaling the lending portfolio.
Co-founder Pavel Fedorov described the round as validation of the company’s model. Salmon Group operates through two regulated entities in the Philippines: Salmon Bank (Rural Bank), Inc. under BSP supervision, and Salmon Finance, Inc. under Securities and Exchange Commission licensing.
Market Context
The Philippine consumer finance market presents structural conditions that have drawn repeated investor interest. Only an estimated 8 million of approximately 115 million Filipinos hold credit cards, leaving a large segment of the population without access to formal revolving credit. Salmon targets this segment through AI-enabled credit scoring that incorporates mobile device data and behavioral signals in place of conventional credit bureau data.
Publicly available data indicates total funding raised by Salmon Group across all rounds prior to the April 2026 transaction reached approximately $143 million since inception. The April 2026 round brings that cumulative figure materially higher, though Salmon has not published a consolidated total as of this writing.