All eyes on China as fintech start-ups raised $12.7bn in 2016

20 Feb 2017

Image: Zapp2Photo/Shutterstock

Asian and US start-ups are dominating the fintech scene, raising 85pc of all funding in 2016 – though overall figures are actually dropping.

Asian fintech start-ups are raising funding like no other, with $5.4bn secured across 165 deals in 2016. In Europe, a similar number of deals raised just 22pc of that total.

That’s according to CBInsights’ latest report into the VC-backed fintech scene.

A total of $12.7bn was raised in 836 deals, with US figures topping those of Asia – though its $5.5bn was raised across almost three times as many deals.

Despite the largesse, figures are actually down 13pc on CBInsights’ 2015 numbers.

Though, on average, the Asian start-ups are raising far more per round, more than two-and-a-half times that of start-ups in the US, home to half of the 22 fintech unicorns.

Europe, despite the total funding dropping by 25pc, saw the number of deals rise 11pc on 2015, and 124pc on 2011.

It seems that Asia where the action is, and China is the key driver. The main contributor to Asia’s total funding raised was Ping An Insurance Group, China’s largest non-state-owned financial entity, which led a round for online lender Lufax, raising $1.2bn.

Another funding round saw e-commerce giant JD.com raise $1bn.

In total, $4.6bn of Asia’s total funding went through China. This excludes the $4.5bn Series B share placement issued by Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com