Pulse of Fintech H1'26

Australian fintech investment trends

In H1'26, Australia recorded $456 million of investment in the fintech sector across 28 deals. Whilst this represents an increase in deal value compared to the previous half-year, which recorded $256 million of investment, it also represents a 35% decline in deal volume over the same period. This trend reflects the fact that the overwhelming majority of investment value came from just two transactions: Synthetix's Series C funding round of $150 million, led by Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital, and the acquisition of Independent Reserve by IG Group for $117 million. Combined, these two transactions accounted for 58% of the total deal value for the period.

The Australian fintech landscape continues to experience a declining number of deals, with activity increasingly concentrated in a small number of strategic transactions. This is occurring amidst a range of challenges that continue to make the local environment difficult for fintech start-ups and scale-ups to navigate.

Other notable transactions during the period included the $55 million acquisition of Banxa Holdings by OSL Group, a Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed company and a leader in the digital asset industry. Banxa is a leading infrastructure provider enabling embedded cryptocurrency capabilities within payment platforms. Ordermentum, a hospitality payments platform, also secured a $55 million investment from Five V Capital, while Pay.com.au completed a $28 million private funding round in April 2026.

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Pulse of Fintech H1'26: Australian insights summary

Insights into the Australian fintech landscape

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The Australian fintech ecosystem continues to grapple with a challenging capital environment, and as a result many fintechs, especially those at a start-up or scale-up phase, remain focused on preserving cash and achieving profitability, often at the expense of growth and investment in capability and new innovative solutions.

Daniel Teper

Partner

Mergers & Acquisitions and Head of Fintech (Australia)

Top 6 ASPAC trends to watch in H2'26

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Fintech investment in India

India continuing to attract solid fintech investment given the strength of its economy.

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AI-related operational efficiencies

Increasing interest in AI related to regtech and workflow automation as corporates look to drive operational efficiencies and cost out.

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AI investment

Strengthening AI investment in areas related to AML, operations and software engineering, customer service agents, and employee support agents (e.g. wealth advisory, corporate treasury, claims).

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Agentic AI solutions

Core technology platforms increasingly introducing agentic AI solutions for financial workstreams.

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Support for digital assets

Hong Kong SAR continuing to create policies and market supports across AI, stablecoins, and tokenisation to support the institutionalisation of digital assets.

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Consolidation in China

Consolidation within the payments, credit, and wealth management spaces in China, with more scaled fintechs becoming acquirers.

Global fintech investment update

Fintech market globally sees $103.1 billion in H1 2026 with 2,100 deals.

In H1’26, we saw investment in fintech continue to gain momentum, building on the strong results seen during 2025.

Increase in global investment

Global fintech investment rose from $72.2 billion in H2’25 to $103.1 billion in H1’26, led by the $24.3 billion acquisition of a large global payments company.
Increased investment in the Americas

The Americas continued to attract the largest share of fintech funding, with total investment rising from $47.1 billion in H2’25 to $86.9 billion in H1’26. The US accounted for $80.8 billion of the H1’26 total.
Largest share of investment for Mergers & Acquisitions

M&A accounted for the largest share of investment in H1’26, $67.9 billion across 394 deals, driven by two $10 billion+ acquisitions. Cross-border M&A activity was particularly notable, accounting for $20.2 billion of the H1’26 total as corporates and fintechs looked to expand their scale and capabilities across borders.
Second largest share of investment for Venture Capital

VC investment came second with $31.5 billion invested across 1,641 deals; while a minor dip next to H2’25, the current pace would see VC investment reach a four-year high by the end of 2026.
Four-year investment high for Venture Capital

Global corporate VC investment in fintech reached $16.3 billion in H1’26, on pace for a four-year high by a substantial margin, despite deal volume falling to its lowest pace since 2017.