Global investment in financial technology (fintech) reached US$5.3 billion in the first quarter of 2016, a 67% increase compared with the same period last year, according to a report by Accenture analyzing global fintech trends released on Wednesday.
This strong showing follows 2015, which was already a strong year for fintechs, as global investment grew by 75% to US$22.3 billion. By contrast, venture investment overall grew by 29% in 2015, the Accenture report notes.
Nevertheless, there are signs that the fintech industry has reached a new level of maturity, the report says, “with some regions cooling-off and a continued increase in larger deal sizes.” There have also been some high-profile failures, the report notes, which has helped cool enthusiasm for the sector.
Increasingly, the Asia-Pacific region is driving the growth in fintech investment, according to the report, with firms in the region generating more than half of investment in the first quarter. In 2015, fintech investment in Asia more than quadrupled to US$4.3 billion. By contrast, North America continues to provide the bulk of investment, but it’s growing at a much slower rate. In 2015, investment in North America grew 44% to US$14.8 billion.
The report also indicates that collaborative fintech ventures, which view traditional financial institutions as their customers, are gaining increased traction, rather than firms that aim to compete against those institutions. Collaborative ventures accounted for 44% of fintech investment in 2015, up from 38% in 2010. In North America, the percentage of funding for collaborative fintech ventures is now up to 60% from 40% in 2010, the report says.
“The proportion of competitive fintech ventures in Europe and Asia is much higher than in North America, which largely reflects the earlier stages of maturity of fintech markets, particularly outside of London,” says Julian Skan, a managing director in Accenture’s financial services group, in a statement. “London’s welcoming regulatory environment has made a preferred market for competitive fintech ventures to test their propositions. Banks too stand to benefit from this, as it drives momentum to re-imagine their own capabilities.”
Banks spend an estimated US$50 billion to US$70 billion on internal fintech investment each year, the report estimates.
With growing maturity in the sector, the focus of fintech firms is expanding from retail payments to other areas of the industry, the report notes. “Insurance, for example, is rapidly emerging as the next big thing in fintech,” it says, with investment into firms in this space more than tripling from 2014 to 2015.
“The drive for fintech innovation is spreading well beyond traditional tech hubs,” adds Richard Lumb, Accenture’s group chief executive, financial services. “New frontiers like robotics, blockchain and the Internet of Things are bound less by geography than by the industry’s ability to adopt and scale clever ideas that improve service and efficiencies. The so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ is a global phenomenon that brings new innovation and digital companies that compete and collaborate with traditional financial services. Bank customers stand to gain from this.”
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