Pulse of Fintech H2 2019 Pulse of Fintech H2 2019

Total global fintech investment remained high in 2019 with over $135.7 billion invested globally across M&A, PE and VC deals. Payments and digital banking remained the hottest area of fintech investment globally, significantly focusing on mature startups working to expand geographically or to grow their product breadth. Proptech and insurtech investments were also quite strong in 2019, while regtech saw a record number of deals despite a decline in total investment. At a technology level, cybersecurity-focused fintech companies grew substantially on the radar of investors, while blockchain continued to attract a significant amount of attention.

The extremely high success was driven primarily by the $42.5 billion acquisition of payments processing company Worldpay by Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) in July. Flourishing innovation ecosystems in numerous European countries, the broadening scope of fintech offerings, and growing attention from global investors looking for opportunities also helped spark investment. The growing maturity of fintech markets across the region and the need for financial institutions to up their game also helped drive investor interest in fintechs. The top fintech deals in Europe in 2019 were diverse both geographically and from a solutions perspective. In 2020 fintech investment is expected to remain robust in Europe, with maturing fintechs able to attract larger deals. 

1. Worldpay — $42.5B, London, UK
   Payments/transactions
   M&A
2. AliExchange — $2.1B, Tallinn, Estonia Capital markets/cryptocurrency
   M&A
3. eFront (France) — $1.3B, Paris, France Institutional/B2B
   Buyout
4. SIA (Milan) — $894.8M, Milan, Italy Institutional/B2B
   Buyout
5. Greensill Capital — $800M, London, UK Institutional/B2B
   PE growth
6. World First UK — $717M, London, UK
   Payments/transactions
   M&A
7. N26 — $470M, Berlin, Germany Lending
   Series A
8. Klarna — $460M, Stockholm, Sweden Payments/transactions
   Late-stage VC
9. Ebury — $445M, London, UK Payments/transactions
   M&A
10. OakNorth — $440M, London, UK Lending
    Late-stage VC

Despite the slight drop in 2019 on a global level, fintech investment remained more than double every year prior to 2018, highlighting the enormous strength of the global fintech market. Two deals drove a significant proportion of this investment: the acquisition of Worldpay by Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) and the acquisition of First Data by Fiserv. 

In 2019 the Americas and Europe set new records for fintech investment. Despite Asia saw a decline in fintech investment year over year, results were quite steady compared to historical norms outside of the outlier Q2’18.

1. Bigger, bolder deals
2. Product expansion 
3. Deals occurring in diverse locations
4. Rise of Big Tech
5. Digital banking licenses 
6. The hunted start hunting
7. Partnerships
8. Open banking to open finance
9. Re-bundling of financial services
10. Cybersecurity and digital identity management

Read more here.

Jussi Paski 
+358 40 1484 202
firstname.lastname@kpmg.fi

Jami Nordlund
+358 44 577 9659
firstname.lastname@kpmg.fi