Q2 2019 fintech financing volume exceeds $10 billion

Q2 2019 fintech financing reaches $10.9bn making it the second most active quarter ever. And if you exclude the mega Ant Financial $14bn financing round in the second quarter last year, the second quarter this year represents a record quarter.

We are only just half way past 2019 but so far so good. This year is on track to be the second strongest year ever for global fintech financing volume. The second quarter of 2019 includes 24 financing rounds that were $100m. This represents a 20% increase over the same period last year, according to FT Partners’ Q2 2019 Fintech Insights Report.

The largest financing of the quarter is Greensill’s $800m funding round led by SoftBank. At the same time, the largest North American financing is UiPath’s $568m Series D round led by Coatue.

Meantime, both Europe and North America are trending towards all-time highs for total financing volume in 2019. Asia is holding steady at historical levels ( again when excluding Ant Financial’s mega rounds from 2016 and 2018).

Venture appetite for fintech remains strong. Nine VC firms make 10 or more new and follow-on investments during the first half of 2019.

Strategic participation in fintech financing also remains strong, with four corporate venture firms making more than five new and follow-on investments during the first half of the year.

Global fintech M&A volume for the first half of 2019 of $148.3bn is already at a new full-year record high. This surpasses the 2018 level of $127.8bn and the prior record of $138.3bn in 2015.

2019 mega deals

During 2019, three of the four largest fintech M&A transactions ever have occurred.

• FIS’ $43bn acquisition of Worldpay;
• Fiserv’s $41bn acquisition of First Data, and
• Global Payments’ $25bn acquisition of TSYS.

63% of fintech M&A deals in the first half of 2019 involve acquisitions of North American companies. This accounts for 65% of the total dollar volume.

Global fintech IPO activity has been steady so far in 2019, with 12 total IPOs.