{"id":1868,"date":"2019-11-04T16:51:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T08:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pacificprime.sg\/blog\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2019-11-04T16:51:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T08:51:36","slug":"singapore-fintech-investments-exceed-sgd-1-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pacificprime.sg\/blog\/singapore-fintech-investments-exceed-sgd-1-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore fintech investments exceed SGD $1 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Investment in financial technology ventures, or fintech for short, in Singapore increased at a rapid rate over the first nine months of the year. Based on an Accenture analysis<\/a>, the growth was primarily driven by fundraising with insurtech firms and payments startups, along with a change in direction towards more mature businesses. In this Pacific Prime Singapore<\/a> article, we\u2019ll take a closer look at the rise in Singapore\u2019s Fintech and insurtech investments.<\/p>\n

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A closer look at fintech deals<\/h2>\n

Concluded on September 20, the total value of fintech investments in the nine months jumped 69% from the previous year, rising from USD $435 million to USD $735 million. Likewise, the total value of fintech investments exceeded the total amount raised in 2018 – USD $642 million.<\/p>\n

In the first nine months of the year, the number of fintech deals dropped by 29%, from 133 in the prior-year period to 94, which showed that investors placed bigger bets on fewer deals while startups expanded their business.<\/p>\n

Payments startups (34%) and lending investments (20%) made up the majority of fintech fundraising, while insurtech accounted for 17%. The value of payments deals increased by 113% to USD $251 million, making the largest contribution to the total gains in 2019. Insurtech funding almost quadrupled from USD $35 million to USD $128 million, while lending grew by over 50% to USD $145 million.<\/p>\n

Angel and seed funding, which focuses on the initial stages of capital raising for startups that are commencing to get their business off the ground, declined 56% to USD $54 million. What\u2019s more, the number of those deals dropped 46% to 29 this year. Series funding, which generally targets companies looking to expand their business using external capital, jumped to USD $442 million, or 66%, despite the number of deals that were pretty much unchanged (44 vs. 43 in the first nine months of the previous year).<\/p>\n

Even though the number of insurtech and lending deals dropped over 40%, the number of deals with payments startups increased by 60%. The increase in both the number of deals and value for payments startups shows that investors still see potential opportunities, especially as fintechs and traditional financial firms search for ways to work together as Singapore starts preparing for digital banking licenses in the months to come.<\/p>\n

Chief fintech officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore said,\u201d Crossing a billion-Singapore-dollar investment threshold is recognition from investors around the world of the potential of Singapore\u2019s fintech ecosystem and the outlook for digital financial services not just in Singapore, but also in Southeast Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThese comprehensive figures show that fintech investment in Singapore has increased nearly six-fold year-on-year from 2015. It\u2019s encouraging to see local startups financing their global growth from Singapore. Additionally, several global fintech companies with regional headquarters in Singapore have recently raised sizeable funds to fuel their Asian expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind fintech investment data analysis<\/h2>\n

Accenture Research and the Monetary Authority of Singapore worked together closely to analyze fintech investment data from analytics providers (Pitchbook, CB Insights, and Tracxn) and global venture-finance data. Included in the analysis was financing activity from:<\/p>\n