Raffy Montemayor is a co-founder of Salmon, a fintech company with the ambition of becoming the best credit-led and technology-driven modern bank in Southeast Asia.

Salmon uses AI-enabled technology and a proprietary credit engine to provide market-disruptive consumer loans such as Salmon Credit, a revolving credit line that runs on the QR PH network in the Philippines.

Salmon raised $61M in both equity and debt from world class investors such as IFC and Northstar Group to enable it to develop new credit products and a lifestyle banking offering to be launched in the second half of 2024.

‍

👋🏼  How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

As a Salmon co-founder and chairperson of its bank subsidiary, I wear many hats and do whatever it takes to ensure our business achieves its goals in the Philippines, especially around financial inclusion.

This means I’m involved in all aspects of the business, from strategic planning, fundraising and decision-making to hands-on tasks across functions at the Bank such as Compliance, HR, Legal and Finance.

‍

🧐  What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

‍That I have to juggle two babies that take up all my time, energy and effort: Salmon and Taylor, my 3-year old daughter.

Yes, I’m a Swiftie but because I’m juggling these two very important parts of my life, I couldn’t find time to buy a ticket for The Eras Tour and I missed that experience this year just like many other Swifties based in the Philippines.

‍

🏆  What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

It’s got to be how we’ve grown Salmon from nothing in July 2022 to one of the best credit-led fintechs in the Philippines.

We have 3 fast-growing consumer lending products, a top-rated app in both Google Play and the App Store, a nationwide sales footprint, 2 financing companies and a bank under our belt in less than 2 years. That’s incredible speed and something that is really unheard of in the fintech space in Southeast Asia.

‍

🔍  What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?

We’re closely watching the advances in AI because many developments in this space will benefit fintech tremendously.

Boris, our Head of AI Banking, and his team has already developed our own in-house KYC tool built on a mix of AWS AI Solutions and open source neural networks that is performing better than that of globally-known KYC providers at 10% the cost.

That’s an amazing development around AI and is one of the factors that has helped us reach positive unit economics on the first loan we issue to customers in the 2nd half of 2023. So we’re constantly looking for how we can be more effective and save on costs through AI-related products and tools.

‍

💼  What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

Taking a fintech/modern bank from 0 to 1 is extremely challenging.

After going through this ourselves, I’ve learned how helpful it is to have co-founders and founding team members with deep banking experience including dealing with regulators such as the central bank in various countries.

This ensures your startup has credibility, navigates the complex regulatory environment effectively and builds trust with stakeholders.

So, try to work in the fintech space beforehand so that you can meet like-minded people who are just as passionate about solving the same problem as you do and have the competencies and the skills that could complement your own experience.

‍

🗣  What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

I’m a big fan of the NBA and I have a WhatsApp chat group with a few friends that is quite active throughout the NBA season. So, I can talk about basketball and the NBA for hours.

‍

🎥  What's your favorite movie/TV show?

I enjoy watching The Expanse on Amazon Prime.

It’s a sci-fi/political drama set in the future where humanity has colonized the solar system and factions have developed among people who live on Earth, Mars and a region in space occupied by working-class miners.

It supposedly has a realistic portrayal of space (not that I would really know) and has a compelling story. Check it out if you’re into that sort of thing.

‍

🍨  What's your go-to ice cream flavor?

Strawberry! It’s been my favorite flavor since I was a little kid. It’s clear from my photo that I love ice cream.