2018 witnessed a stellar growth in fintech funding as they strengthened presence in financial services in Asia competing with incumbent players but also enabling new opportunities through partnership and financial inclusion.

Over last five years more than $100 billion has been invested into fintech companies by venture capital (VC) funds. 2018 was a landmark year with an unprecedented VC funding of $39.57 billion, a 120% jump in global funding and 15% in the number of deals compared to the previous year, according to data from CB Insights.  

The fintech landscape in Asia is changing rapidly. The VC funding deals for fintechs in the region witnessed the big jump of 38% in 2018 compared to the previous year, accounting for a record $22.65 billion. The figures for the year were however inflated on account of a whopping $14 billion investment raised by Ant Financial and another mega deal was $1.35 billion raised by China based Lufax.

The total funding for Asian fintech ($22.65 billion) is much higher than $11.89 billion invested in US based fintechs and $3.53 billion in UK based fintechs.

Within Asia, China has been the undisputed leader in the total fintech investments raised. Among other parts of the region, Fintech in South East Asia witnessed a 143% growth in funding, reaching $484 million in 2018 according to the report.

Global VC investment in fintech witnessed a strong 120% growth in 2018

Latest report shows that in the first quarter of 2019 the fintech funding in Asia has however dropped by 59% compared to first quarter in 2018, while the total number of deals showed a small decline of 2%. Europe saw its funding grow to $1.7B, surpassing Asia which saw mere $875M in funding in Q1’19. Notably also for the first time Indian fintech companies raised $256 million higher than c...

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