It’s been a tough few years with challenging inflation, high interest rates, and tepid capital markets. While there are many indications the world has turned the corner, for Fintechs and access to capital, 2024 was a dismal year.
Innovate Finance, a UK association that advocates on behalf of the key Fintech sector, has recently published a report on Fintech funding gleaning data from multiple sources. According to their numbers, global Fintech funding cratered a whopping 20% in 2024, and the UK was not spared the damage as funding tanked 37%. The UK peaked in 2021 when 992 deals raised over $13 billion.
The report shares that in 2024, global Fintech investment totaled $43.5 billion, a 20% decline from $54.2 billion in 2023. At the same time, global Fintech deal count declined to 6,464 – down from 7,683 in 2023, a decrease of 16%.
The US continues to dominate the Fintech funding sector, accounting for $22 billion last year for 2633 deals. The decline in the US was 13% as $25.3 billion was generated in 2023.
The top markets are as follows:
| Deal Count | Capital Raised ($bn) | |
| United States | 2,633 | 22.0 |
| United Kingdom | 546 | 3.6 |
| India | 274 | 2.2 |
| Singapore | 311 | 1.4 |
| Brazil | 122 | 1.4 |
| China | 94 | 1.15 |
| Canada | 162 | 1.14 |
| France | 149 | 1.10 |
| Philippines | 19 | 1.0 |
| Germany | 149 | 0.9 |
It is important to note that the UK trounces all other European countries when it comes to Fintech funding and the next two countries on the list, Germany and France, in aggregate do not achieve the same level of Fintech funding.
Innovate Finance remains optimistic going forward predicting that AI and blockchain will help to fuel the next phase of Fintech innovation.
Challenges include the need to foster a “pro-growth regulatory environment” and an ecosystem that has access to capital. While the report believes there is a powerful opportunity to capitalize on emerging technologies like blockchain-powered tokenization – nothing is a foregone conclusion. As a global Fintech hub it is imperative that the UK government recognizes the challenges for Fintechs and pursues policies that enable innovation.