Asia’s FinTech Funding hitting new high in Q1’16

According to the Pulse of FinTech, the quarterly global report on FinTech VC trends published jointly by KPMG International and CB Insights, Asia’s FinTech funding has risen to US$2.6b in the first quarter of 2016. Following a significant pullback in funding in Q4’15, mega-rounds lifted quarterly investment into VC-backed FinTech companies by over 150%.

Global investment in private FinTech companies is said to have totalled US$5.7 billion in Q1’16, with US$4.9 billion specifically invested in VC-backed FinTech companies across 218 deals, a 96% jump in comparison to the same quarter last year. The fact that three mega-rounds accounted for 54% of VC FinTech investment in Q1’16 has resulted in the increase in funding. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, VC-backed FinTech deal activity rose 22% in Q1’16.

Warren Mead, Global Co-Leader of FinTech, KPMG International said: “Global VC investment into the technology sector may be experiencing a bit of a pause, however FinTech, propelled by some very large mega-rounds, has proven to be an exception to the rule. Investors are putting money into FinTech companies all over the world – from the traditional strongholds of China, the US and the UK – to up and coming FinTech hubs like Singapore, Australia and Ireland.”

“While FinTech startups continue to attract large investment both in the US and abroad, and investors gravitate to areas yet untouched by much tech innovation including insurance, recent events and public market performance suggest that growth-stage FinTech fundraising will be harder to come by moving forward in 2016.” commented Anand Sanwal, CEO at CB Insights.

Lyon Poh, Head of Digital + Innovation, KPMG in Singapore, added: “In Singapore, we have seen a flurry of activities in line with the government’s push for financial institutions to adopt innovative technology. For example, many insurers are building innovation centres and programmes to rapidly identify and adopt FinTech solutions to bring innovation back into their core businesses. This has in turn encouraged more FinTech startups to come to Singapore and use it as a base for developing their propositions, and for fund raising.”