Looking back over H1’25, it’s clear that fintech investors were incredibly selective with their dealmaking. Key trends we saw during H1’25 included:
The global fintech market saw $44.7 billion investment during H1’25 — the lowest six-month period since H1’20. The impact of higher interest rates on the cost of capital and expectation of returns has removed more speculative investing and reset fintech investment to a new baseline. While fintech investors were cautiously optimistic entering 2025, new swells of geopolitical tensions combined with shifting US tariff and trade policies made it difficult for investors to feel confident in their dealmaking activities. Q2’25 was particularly soft, with just $18.7 billion invested across 972 deals — a volume of deals not seen since Q3’17.
The Americas attracted $26.7 billion in fintech investment in H1’25, led by the $2.6 billion acquisition of US-based Next Insurance by Ergo Group, the primary insurance business of Munich Re¹ and the $2 billion VC raise by Cayman Islands-based Binance. Comparatively, the EMEA region saw $13.7 billion, including the year’s largest fintech deal so far — the $3.2 billion buyout of UK-based Preqin by BlackRock² — and the $1.7 billion take-private of France-based Esker by Bridgepoint.³ The ASPAC region saw just $4.3 billion in fintech investment, led by the acquisition of Japan-based WealthNavi by MUFG for $571.3 million.⁴
At a sector level, digital assets and currencies attracted the most fintech investment globally this half year — $8.4 billion, compared to $10.7 billion during all of 2024 — led by a $2 billion raise by Grand Caymans-based crypto exchange Binance. At mid-year, the digital asset space was well positioned to achieve a three-year high in global investment — although it will likely remain well shy of 2021’s peak high of $31 billion. Investors showed particular interest in stablecoins, particularly in activities such as trading, remittances, and as a source of payment in emerging markets. Other investment areas include digital asset market infrastructure and tokenisation platforms. During H1’25, the digital asset space also saw the incredibly successful IPO of USDC stablecoin issuer Circle; it raised $1.1 billion on the NYSE, with shares popping 168 percent in first day trading.⁵ Other US based digital asset platforms are likely to IPO in the second half of the year.
Payments sector sees investment tumble in H1’25 as investors focus on resilient models
After nearly doubling from $17.6 billion in 2023 to $30.8 billion in 2024, there was some optimism in the payments space heading into 2025. This optimism didn’t materialise, however, as investment tumbled to just $4.6 billion in H1’25 — a level not seen in over a decade as investors steered clear of $1 billion+ M&A transactions. EMEA attracted the two largest deals of H1’25 — both in the UK — including a $500 million VC raise by fintech as a service payments platform Rapyd Financial Network and the $366.3 million buyout of scalable payments solutions company Equals Group by a consortium including TowerBrook Funds, JC Flowers Funds and shareholders of Railsr.⁶ The largest deal in the Americas was a $366 million raise by Argentina-based neobank Ualá Bank, while Singapore-based Airwallex raised $301 million as the largest payments deal in the ASPAC region.⁷
Insurtech attracts $4.8 billion in global investment in H1’25 — more than during all of 2024
Total global investment in insurtech rose dramatically in H1’25, with $4.8 billion in investment across 141 deals — well above the $2.9 billion raised during all of 2024, and on track for the strongest year for insurtech investment since 2021. The total was propeled significantly by the $2.6 billion acquisition of US-based SMB-focused digital insurance company Next Insurance by insurance group Ergo — a part of Munich Re. The Americas accounted for four of the five largest insurtech deals — all in the US; in addition to the Next Insurance transaction, digitally enabled home insurance provider Openly raised $193 million,⁸ Fentura Financial was acquired by ChoiceOne for $180.4 million,⁹ and life insurance-focused technology provider Bestow raised $125 million.¹⁰ The largest deal in the ASPAC region was a $147 million raise by Singapore-based embedded insurance platform provider Bolttech,¹¹ while the largest deal in the EMEA region was a $90 million raise by UK-based insurance platform company Marshmallow.
Cybersecurity-fintech pure-play dealmaking slows
Total global investment in cybersecurity was incredibly soft in H1’25, with just $120 million invested across 26 deals, compared to the $1 billion in investment across 89 deals seen in 2024. The vast majority of this investment occurred at the seed and early deal stages; a $50 million raise by Israel-based blockchain security firm Blockaid¹² was the largest transaction of H1’25, followed by a $20 million raise by Hong Kong-based decentralised identity blockchain solution Humanity Protocol¹³ and a $8 million seed raise by US-based SMB-focused cyber warranty firm Cork.
Global investment in digital assets and currencies surges in H1’25
Total investment in digital assets and currencies rose dramatically in H1’25 — with $8.4 billion in investment globally compared to the $10.7 billion seen during all of 2024 and the $9.4 billion seen during 2023. The Americas attracted the largest deals in the sector, including two $1 billion+ deals — a $2 billion VC raise by Grand Caymans-based Binance¹⁴ and the $1.5 billion acquisition of US-based futures trading platform Ninja Trader by crypto platform Kraken.¹⁵ In the ASPAC region, the largest deal in the space involved China-based Cango selling off its China-based legacy business to Ursalpha Digital Limited for $251.9 million in order to reposition itself as a BTC mining business,¹⁶ followed distantly by a $69.4 million raise by Japan-based Web3 and entertainment fan economy creator Gaudiy.¹⁷
Regtech investment tapers off after H1’24 megadeal
Regtech attracted $2.1 billion in investment globally in H1’25 — well off the pace required to match the $8.3 billion seen during 2024. Four of the largest deals during the quarter occurred in the EMEA region, including three in the UK — the $209.9 million take-private of UK-based customer engagement data security company Eckoh by Bridgepoint,¹⁸ a $175 million VC raise by compliance solutions firm Quantexa,¹⁹ and a $75 million VC raise by digital asset custody firm Komainu.²⁰ The largest regtech deal in the Americas was the $246.5 million acquisition of US-based cloud native buy and sell side solutions firm LiquidityBook by FactSet.²¹ Regtech deals in the ASPAC region were primarily very small during H1’25 — such as the $23 million raise by Singapore-based incorporation and accounting platform Sleek.²²
While total investment was down in H1’25, deal volume at mid-year stood at 190 — well ahead of the pace needed to exceed the deals total seen during all of 2023 (361) and 2024 (360). This highlights the significant activity occurring in the space — if primarily centered around earlier deal stages compared to more mature fintech subsectors.
AI driving increasing interest in wealthtech
While global investment in wealthtech remained quite soft compared to other fintech sectors during H1’25, there was a significant amount of ancillary interest in the space as corporates and investors alike looked at the potential for AI to transform various aspects of the asset management lifecycle — from making back-end processes more efficient and enhancing relationship management with clients to supporting wealth corroboration from a KYC perspective.
During H1’25, the largest deals in the wealthtech space included the $571.3 million acquisition of Japan-based asset management platform and robo advisory service WealthNavi by MUFG,²³ Julius Baer Group’s sale of its Brazil-based wealth management assets to BTG Pactual for $106.1 million,²⁴ and a $69.9 million raise by France-based cryptocurrency investment products firm Bitwise.²⁵
