Global Fintech VC in 2016 - Was It Up or Down?

We were about to begin a story reporting that Innovate Finance, a UK-based NFP representing the British fintech community has released a report showing that global fintech VC was up for 2016. We found this quite interesting as many sources last year were stating that fintech VC was down year over year against 2015, but we felt the reporting on that was wrong. So, our intent was to comment on a post a story from a Forbes contributor outlining that case. However, alas, we accidentally closed that page, and when we went back to Google to find it again and typed in "fintech VC", this time we found another report form KPMG announcing fintech VC in 2016 was DOWN. So there you have it. Who's correct? Who knows, but VC is still streaming into fintech worldwide, and right now, Asia's well ahead of the pack globally.

(Cindy Taylor/Publisher)

"KPMG published their quarterly Fintech report last week. The Pulse of Fintech Q4 2016, shares both quarterly and full year numbers for global Fintech investment.

According to the report, investments and mergers value dropped from $46.7 billion in 2015 to $24.7 billion in 2016. KPMG called the total for 2016 still “historically robust.”

Overall, global M&A in Fintech dropped from $34.1 billion in 2015 to just $11.15 billion in 2016. Venture capital investments totaled $13.6 billion for 840 deals – an increase of 7% versus year prior.

Corporate venture capital increased their activity representing the strategic importance for established firms to enter the Fintech space. Deal volume for corporates his 145 for $8.6 billion.

Looing at the US specifically, KPMG called 2016 a “reset” as deal volume slumped. In the Americas, the amount invested in Fintech dropped by a whopping 50% but Canada bucked the trend as VC activity actually increased up North.

Europe slumped too. The continent went from $10.9 billion in 2015 to just $2.2 billion of M&A and investment into Fintech.

The shining star in the world? Asia, once again."