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Global fintech investment rebounds in first half of 2021
E-commerce growth fuels investor interest in payments-focused firms
Darryl Yu 20 Aug 2021

Global fintech investment has stormed back this year, growing 12.6% to US$98 billion in the first half compared with US$87 billion in the same period a year ago. That’s according to a recent report from KPMG, titled “Pulse of Fintech”, which credits the robust numbers to the abundance of investor dry powder and Covid-related digital acceleration efforts.

While the recovery is encouraging, the fintech industry still has some ways to go to capture the level of deal activity pre-pandemic. In 2019 global fintech investment reached US$215.4 billion.

In Asia-Pacific, fintech companies received US$7.5 billion from investors across 467 deals in H1 2021, up from US$4.7 billion in the same period a year ago.

Fintechs in China recorded their best result since 2019, capturing US$1.3 billion from investors in H1 2021. The deals were executed amid increased regulatory scrutiny of the business practices of new economy companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, Didi and Meituan.

“China’s fintech market is incredibly mature next to many other jurisdictions with investments in areas like payments really taking off a few years ago and a number of clear leaders emerging,” explains Andrew Huang, partner and fintech leader at KPMG China.

Fintech companies offering payment solutions continued to draw the most investment, sustaining the momentum from 2020 to raise US$19 billion worth of capital in H1 2021.

Rapid growth in e-commerce has fueled demand for better payment services. According to data from ACI Worldwide, global e-commerce purchases rose 15% in H1 2021 compared with the same period last year.  

Payments-focused companies saw some of the largest fintech deals in Asia-Pacific in H1 2021, with Mynt in the Philippines receiving US$175 million in venture-capital funding and Razorpay in India raising US$160 million in a Series E round.

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