Global fintech investment hit $98bn in H1 2021 – KPMG

Total fintech investment reached $98bn from 2,456 deals in the first half of 2021, according to KPMG.

The company, in its ‘Pulse of Fintech H1’21’ report, said this was more than the $87bn raised in H2 2020.

The report said, “A wealth of dry powder, COVID-related digital acceleration, an increasingly diverse range of fintech hubs and subsectors, and robust activity in almost all regions of the world contributed to the strong start to 2021.

“Global VC investment reached over $52bn in H1 2021 — very close to the annual record of $54bn seen in 2018. The largest VC rounds of H1 2021 included US-based Wealthtech Robinhood ($3.4bn), Brazil-based digital Nubank ($1.5bn), Sweden-based ‘buy now, pay later’ firm Klarna (two rounds totaling $1.9bn), and Germany-based wealthtech Trade Republic ($900m). South Korea-based mobile financial app Toss raised $410m in Asia’s largest VC round of H1 2021.”

According to the report, the Americas accounted for $51.4bn of fintech investment in H1, with the US accounting for $42.1bn alone.

In a report published by the Senior Venture Builder for Catalyst Fund at BFA Global, Maxime Bayen, African fintechs raised $571.2m in the first half of the year

According to the report, most of the funding on the continent was received by Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana

The report said local investments in fintech were rising, adding, “Local investors have been quite active this year and 40 per cent have been involved in more than one deal in the past six months. Of the 369 investors who have been involved in at least one $100k+ deal in Africa this year, 110 (30 per cent) are headquartered on the continent.

“The US is home to more investors (133) involved in a deal in Africa than Africa itself. US-based investors are however significantly less active than Africa-based investors: 87 per cent of them have so far only participated in one deal.”