UK fintech investment fell to $9.6 billion in the first half of 2022, down from $27.8 billion in the same period the previous year, as the global economic slowdown took its toll on the sector, according to a report from KPMG.
Geopolitical uncertainty, turbulent public markets, ongoing supply chain disruption, high levels of inflation and increasing interest rates all contributed to the more subdued levels of investment, says KPMG.
The UK is not alone in seeing a slowdown in fintech investment, with the Americas and Emea regions both seeing total investment and deal volume slide.
Total global fintech funding across M&A, PE and VC reached $107.8 billion across 2980 deals in H1 2022. Payments continued to attract the most funding among fintech subsectors, accounting for $43.6 billion in investment compared to the $60.3 billion seen during all of 2021.
Crypto-focused companies attracted $14.2 billion during H1, including a $1.1 billion raise by Germany-based Trade Republic in June. Investment in the insurtech sector dropped considerably, with $3.8 billion of investment globally — well off pace to match the $14.8 billion in investment seen during 2021.
Compared to a number of other areas, global investment in regtech showed strong resilience in the first half, attracting $5.6 billion in investment across 157 deals.
Anton Ruddenklau, global fintech leader, KPMG International, says: “The fintech market experienced a massive year globally in 2021, which makes it look like investment has somewhat fallen off a cliff so far in 2022. That really isn’t the case. We’ve simply shifted back to levels seen in 2019 and 2020."