Funding surge for Philippine lenders defies SEA’s fintech slump

Funding for Southeast Asia’s fintech space is on a downtrend. But in the Philippines, lending is emerging as a bright spot.

While Singapore is still the top destination for fintech investments in the region for the first half of 2025, fintech players in the Philippines raised a total of US$165.8 million in disclosed funding. That’s more than Indonesia’s figure over the same period, according to Tech in Asia data.

Year to date, Indonesian startups have raised some US$100.4 million across 12 deals. These include peer-to-peer lender Amartha’s US$55 million fundraise as well as payment firm Oy Indonesia’s US$15 million round.

In previous years, funding to Philippine fintech firms has been propped up by mega deals like Maya and GCash. The latter’s parent firm Mynt, for instance, raised a whopping US$393 million last year.

But so far this year, lending has taken center stage.

Together, lending players Cashalo and Salmon have raised US$163 million in June alone.

Buy now, pay later firm Atome also raised an eight-figure funding round this year.

While Atome is headquartered in Singapore, it has a significant presence in the Philippines. In June, the company said it would use the US$75 million it raised in a recent funding round to expand its services in the country.

The time is now

Fady Abdel-Nour, general partner at Antler Elevate, which participated in Salmon’s most recent fundraise, notes that lending-focused companies in the country are performing better and attracting more international capital over those in other markets today.

He pins this growth to a “confluence of things”: regulatory improvements, digital fluency, and a growing population just waiting to spend.

Photo credit: Richie Chan / Shutterstock

With the pandemic-driven surge in digital payments, many Filipinos have gotten used to online transactions and using digital financial services – such as those of Cashalo and Atome – Abdel-Nour suggests.

Like Indonesia and Vietnam, the Philippines’ large population of mostly young and mobile-savvy people is still underserved by traditional financial institutions.

Credit penetration in the Philippines is also low: Over 15% of Filipino adults own at least one credit card. That’s on par with Vietnam, which has a credit card penetration rate of 14.3% among its banked population.

Tighter regulations, more investor confidence

US$100 billion by the next five years