Fintech funding has dipped to a new four-year low with only $7.3 billion invested in the sector globally during the first three months of the year, this is according to the latest State of Venture report from the US-based data analytics firm, CB Insights.
The report indicates that the sector is struggling to attract the same level of investment it previously enjoyed during the likes of Q4 2021 when a record $38.9 billion was bagged across 1,680 investment rounds.
The most recent figure however suggests that activity across the market is dwindling with just 904 deals made in Q1 2024, the fourth lowest recording since the pandemic began, with a deal average of $11.1 million.
US-based fintechs were the quarter’s top recipients of this funding, having cut a $3.3 billion slice of the pie across a total of 393 deals. They were followed not so closely by the European fintech community, which bagged $2.2 billion across 203 deals, while Asia took third place with $1 billion sealed in 210 deals.
Some of the largest deals from this period include UK-based Monzo’s $430 million Alphabet-led funding round in March, the $200 million raised for Bilt Rewards and the $150 million raised by Kore.ai, with both these two latter deals being closed by US-based companies in January.
This regional analysis shows that the rest of the world, such as Latin America, Africa, Oceania, Canada and some other smaller regions, has only received 12% of the total amount funded into fintech this year, with just under $700 million raised.
On the buy side, some of this year’s most active investors include asset management firm Polychain Capital in the US, Cogitent Ventures in the UK and Big Brain Holdings, a crypto venture fund based in the British Virgin Islands, with all three counting nine new investments this quarter.
However, their deal-making was far surpassed by OKX Ventures, the investment portfolio of the web3 technology company and crypto exchange OKX, which has sealed 21 deals this year alone. Among these, OKX Ventures participated in the $100 million Series A funding round of digital asset firm HashKey in January.
Source: fintechfutures.com
