Nearly $130bn has been invested in FinTech companies globally since 2014
- More than $127bn has been invested in FinTech companies globally since 2014, with funding topping $40bn last year.
- Investment doubled between 2014 and 2017, with the number of deals breaking the 2,000-mark in 2015 and 2016, before declining to just over 1800 last year. This increased the average deal size to $22.4m in 2017, indicative of a maturing global FinTech funding landscape.
- FinTech companies raised $10bn globally in Q1 2018, setting strong funding expectations for the rest of the year. N26, a German-based ‘challenger bank’, raised $160m in series C funding from Tencent Holdings and Allianz X. This was one of the largest European deals of the quarter. N26 plans to use the funding to consolidate its presence in Europe and expand operations to the United States.
Q3 2017 is still the strongest quarter for FinTech investment to date, topping $12.5bn
- Q3 2017 was the strongest quarter for FinTech investment to date, with $12.5bn raised across 396 deals. This was partly driven by Tokopedia, an Indonesian E-commerce platform, which raised $1.1bn in series F funding from Alibaba in one of the biggest deals of that quarter. This strategic investment was struck with plans of turning Tokopedia into the ‘eBay’ of Indonesia.
- The average global FinTech investment deal size grew from $13.6m in Q1 2017 to $25.8m in Q1 2018, as investors are engaging in a greater number of later-stage transactions.
- Quarterly FinTech investment has remained above $10bn for the last three quarters due to more mega rounds being raised. There were 16 deals valued above $100m in Q1 2017 raising $3.4bn in total, compared to 23 deals in Q1 2018 which raised $4.9bn in total.
Over $3.3bn was raised in the largest 10 global FinTech deals in Q1 2018
- The top 10 global FinTech deals raised $3.3bn in Q1 2018, equal to one third of the total capital invested in FinTech companies during the opening three months of the year.
- US companies were involved in five of the top 10 largest FinTech deals in Q1 2018. Credit Karma, a San Francisco-based personal finance platform, raised the largest round with $500m of secondary market funding from Silver Lake Partners, which was the largest FinTech deal in North America.
- OneConnect, a financial technology platform provider for smaller banks and subsidiary of Ping An Insurance Group, raised $650m in series A funding from IDG Capital and SBI Group. This was the largest FinTech deal of Q1 2018, valuing the company at $7.4bn as it prepares itself for a potential $2bn IPO.
- PurpleBricks, the UKs online only estate agent, raised $177m in post-IPO equity from Axel Springer in March 2018, having gone public in Q4 2015. The company made its US debut in California at the end of Q3 2017, and will use this investment to establish its presence in New York.
North American companies’ share of FinTech deal activity has been falling since 2014 as investors look to other regions
- North American companies’ share of all FinTech deals topped 60% in 2014 before declining continuously, year on year, to 42.3% of deals in 2017. The share of deals involving North American companies rebounded back above 50% in Q1 2018, suggesting that the region might be reclaiming some of its lost ground. There were 202 FinTech deals in North America in Q1 2017, a figure slightly higher than the 2017 quarterly average of 192 deals.
- European FinTech companies increased their share of deal activity from 22.4% in 2014 to just under a third last year. London-based Lendable, a peer-to-peer lending platform, raised just under $400m of debt finance in the largest deal in Europe last year. This funding from Castle Trust has allowed Lendable to grow its lending portfolio further.
- FinTech companies in Asia have also been involved in an increasing proportion of global FinTech deals, reaching 18.6% of deals in Q1 2018. One of the largest deals in Asia went to Wecash, a Chinese credit scoring platform, which raised $160m in series D funding led by Orix Asia Capital and Sea limited in Q1 2018. Wecash will use the funding to widen its application of artificial intelligence in data mining and machine learning.
The data for this research was taken from the FinTech Global database. More in-depth data and analytics on investments and companies across all FinTech sectors and regions around the world are available to subscribers of FinTech Global. ©2018 FinTech Global
