Fintech funding has really picked up in 2021. It’s estimated to have already reached $15 billion during the first quarter, according to CB Insights data. In Asia, Fintech-related investments are on track to exceed $2.6 billion, which is notably the continent’s highest quarterly total since the same period last year.
Supporting this impressive growth has been the rise of mega-rounds (valued at $100 million or more). During the first two months of this year, the number of Fintech mega-rounds internationally and the total amount of capital secured via mega-rounds has again set a new all-time record. In the Asia Pacific or APAC region, the fast-evovling startups include Grab (and Grab Finanncial Services), Airwallex, GCash and MoMo. All of these companies have managed to finalize mega-rounds in 2021 in order to support their ongoing growth and development.
In order get an idea of which companies have investors really interested in financial services and Fintech, a list of some of the largest Fintech investment rounds are as follows.
- Grab Financial Services secured $300M
- Indian Fintech Cred acquired $215M
- Global Fintech Innovations (Mynt) from Philippines netted $175M
- Fumi Technology (WeBull) – China – acquired $150M
- Paidy (Japan) – raised $120M
- BharatPe (India) – secured $108M
- M_Service(Momo) (Vietnam) – acquired $100M+
- Airwallex (Hong Kong) – netted $100M
- Fenbeitong (China) – closed a $92.5M round
- Groww (India) – netted $83M
As noted in the CB Insights report, they’ve looked at global Fintech investment trends during Q1’21 (as of 2/28/2021).
The report has shared key funding activities and some projections:
- Quarter-to-date (QTD) funding has “surpassed $13.4B, the highest quarterly total since Q2’18.” Global fintech funding in Q1’21 is “on pace to grow 39% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), even after excluding Robinhood’s $3.4B emergency funding raise.”
- As of the end of February, “total quarterly funding has pushed past $13.4B — more than any other quarter since Q2’18, when Ant Group raised $14B.”
- This past quarter’s funding boom is “distributed across major regions. North America, Europe, and Asia quarterly funding totals have exceeded the levels seen since Q2’20. North America has already reached a record high for quarterly funding, driven by Robinhood.”
- Q1’21 QTD has “set a record for total mega-rounds in a quarter (33). Fintech companies such as LendInvest, Checkout.com, Nubank, and MX Technologies continue to leverage the vast pools of private capital available to them. So long as many of these mature fintech companies spurn the public markets, mega-round totals could continue reaching new highs.”
You may check out the complete report here.