First Circle
First Circle is the Philippines' only dedicated B2B SME fintech lender, delivering fast, fully digital revolving credit lines to small and medium businesses through proprietary credit underwriting supported by AI-enabled data extraction — processing applications in one day versus up to a month at local banks. Backed by the IFC (World Bank Group), Accion and Insignia Ventures, First Circle brings a decade-long track record and 60+ profitable loan vintages.
Kilde Score is the platform’s proprietary credit assessment of the borrower, reflecting Kilde’s independent credit view and expressed as a numeric score from worst to best (1.00–5.75). For full details of the credit methodology, including its mapping to a Fitch-style rating equivalent, please refer to this article.
Total unpaid balance on a loan, comprising both the remaining principal and any accrued interest.
Philippines
Regulatory status of the borrower: Licensed if the license is required, or 'Not applicable' if no licence is required in its operating market(s).
Total amount of loans the borrower has issued to its own end customers. Reflects the company's overall lending scale.
Outstanding balance of the borrower’s loan portfolio, net of impairment provisions.
Overview
Background & History
Founded in 2015 and operating in the Philippines since 2016 through its SEC-registered subsidiary First Circle Growth Finance Corp., First Circle is Singapore-headquartered under Carabao Capital Global Pte. Ltd. Positioned as the only fintech in the Philippines focused primarily on B2B SME lending, the company has built a decade-long track record spanning more than 60 profitable loan vintages, while retail lending and payments platforms dominate the broader digital finance market.
Business Model & Lines of Business
First Circle's core product — the SME Credit Line — is a revolving working-capital and project-fulfilment facility accounting for approximately 99% of the portfolio. Small and medium-sized businesses (revenues of USD 2 million on average) can access unsecured credit lines of USD 10k-400k at a weighted-average APR of 37% and with average tenor of 6 months. Lending is fully digital, powered by a proprietary risk engine with 13 underwriting nodes and AI-driven data extraction — processing applications in approximately one day versus up to one month at local banks. New expansion products being seasoned since 2026 include salary loans, corporate credit cards and rooftop solar financing.
Key Milestones
The operating company's net loan portfolio grew from USD 12.9M (FY2022) to USD 17.2M (FY2023), USD 32.4M (FY2024) and USD 67.4M (FY2025), representing 108% CAGR over three years. Total income reached USD 14.3M (+88% YoY) and net profit USD 4.0M in FY2025 (FY2024: USD 1.8M). As of 31 August 2026, First Circle’s SME loan book amounts to USD 100m, up from USD 67m in December 2025. First Circle has disbursed USD 500M+ cumulatively to 5,300+ SMEs. The company raised USD 16M across two Series B rounds — USD 8.5M (June 2024) and USD 7.5M (November 2025) — both led by IFC (World Bank Group). As of July 2026, the group draws on 20 lending facilities totalling USD 96.1M outstanding. Financials are audited with unqualified opinions across all years: FCGFC (operating subsidiary) was audited by SGV & Co. (Ernst & Young Philippine affiliate) for FY2022–FY2024 and by Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A Grant Thornton) for FY2025; the consolidated group accounts (CCG) have been audited by Ernst & Young LLP (Singapore) for all available years (FY2022–FY2024).
Management Team & Organization
The senior team is led by Patrick Lynch (CEO; ex-CompareAsia, Morgan Stanley; Forbes 30 Under 30), Chris Burgess (CIO; ex-Morgan Stanley, Bridgewater; UC Berkeley), Josh O'Donnell (VP Finance; ex-Perella Weinberg Partners, Cerberus Capital; Imperial College London), Charles Allen (VP Operations; ex-Uber), Sam Nunez (General Counsel; ex-Shopee) and Benedict Carandang (External Relations; World Economic Forum Fellow). The board includes IFC representative Rostan Schwab (Investor Director), Tee Suraphongchai (ShopBack; Investor Director) and Philip Riese (ex-American Express, Monzo; Board Advisor). Institutional shareholders include the IFC, Accion, Insignia Ventures Partners and OSK-SBI.
Financials
Outstanding balance of the borrower’s loan portfolio, net of impairment provisions.
Total income (interest and fee income) generated from the borrower’s lending activities.
Products
Typical contractual tenor of the loans disbursed by the borrower to its end customers.
The effective Annual Percentage Rate of the loan charged by the borrower to its end customers, inclusive of interest and fees.
Typical principal amount disbursed by the borrower to its end customers per loan transaction.
Expected share of non-performing loans (NPL) — loans where the end customer has stopped repaying — under this product, shown as a range.
Share of this product in the borrower's overall loan portfolio. Shows how much of the lending business comes from this product.
Market Data
According to Fitch Rating
Annualised
Annualised