Pulse of Fintech H2 2025

UK remains the European leader for fintech investment, despite funding levels at five year low

UK fintech investment fell by more than a fifth in 2025, but still attracted more funding than those in France, Germany, Belgium, the Nordics, Ireland, China, and Brazil combined.
Total fintech investment in EMEA increased marginally in 2025 to £21.5 billion, up from £19.5 billion in 2024.
The largest fintech deal in Europe in 2025 was the £2.2 billion fundraising round in November by UK headquartered neobank, Revolut. The largest deal in Europe outside the UK was the £110.5 million financing round by Zurich-headquartered small business lender Teylor.

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Hannah Dobson

UK Fintech Lead and Partner, Indirect Tax

KPMG in the UK

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Total UK fintech investment dropped to £8 billion in 2025, down 21% from £9.8 billion in 2024.

Geopolitical tensions, investor scrutiny and the higher interest rate environment all contributed to more subdued levels of UK fintech investment, compared to the record highs in 2021. UK fintech investment in 2025 was at its lowest level since the Covid pandemic in 2020 (£5.6 billion).

UK fintech investment is at its lowest level since the 2020 Covid pandemic (see graph below)

While 2025 presented ongoing challenges, the UK continues to stand out as Europe’s fintech hub, attracting over a third of total EMEA funding. Encouragingly, we are beginning to see momentum return as regulatory clarity improves and market conditions stabilise. To maintain its position as Europe’s leading fintech centre, the UK must remain an investor friendly location, a place where innovation and entrepreneurship can thrive and be supported.

Hannah Dobson

Partner and UK Head of Fintech

KPMG in the UK

After three years of declining investment, total global fintech funding rebounded in 2025 to hit £85.4 billion, up from £70.3 billion in 2024. The rebound was underpinned by strong growth in venture capital and M&A activity, even as private equity investment softened. Global M&A deal value rose to £40.9 billion, driven primarily by the United States (£20.2 billion) and EMEA (£8.1 billion), while VC investment climbed to £41.8 billion, reflecting renewed appetite for scaled growth platforms.

A bifurcation between major fintech platforms’ continued growth and others’ acquisitions could come.

Payments consolidation is producing billion-dollar European platforms—often with private capital behind them. The planned acquisition of UK-based GoCardless by Dutch payments company Mollie for about £0.91B is a defining UK exit event.
The UK’s Faster Payments and Open Banking ecosystem continues to support account-to-account use cases, like recurring payments. How UK agencies will treat companies like Revolut aiming to operate as banks to garner full regulatory bandwidth will potentially set new guardrails for major fintechs’ handling of compliance, risk management and more especially in periods of rapid growth.
Category-leading platforms that operated the best in the gung-ho fintech era of the late 2010s into the early 2020s have now become significantly sized to the point that they are expanding into other use cases and products and services, plus utilizing secondaries sales to monitor liquidity concerns. Revolut is just one example, but it could be possible that others become acquisition targets, like Checkout.com.

Looking ahead to 2026, the fintech sector is entering a more balanced phase, one defined by selective growth, clearer paths to profitability, and improving liquidity. While macroeconomic and geopolitical risks remain, the combination of stronger exit markets, greater regulatory clarity, and accelerating innovation provides a constructive foundation for sustained investment and long-term value creation.

Karim Haji

Global and UK Head of Financial Services

KPMG in the UK

2025 key global highlights

Global fintech investment rebounded in 2025, rising to £85.4 billion across 4,719 deals, up from £70.3 billion across 5,533 deals in 2024.
Regionally, activity was strongest in the Americas, which attracted £49 billion, up from £40.8 billion in 2024. EMEA followed with £21.5 billion, compared to £19.5 billion a year earlier. Asia-Pacific activity slowed, declining to £6.9 billion from £8.6 billion in 2024.
Global deal volume fell to its lowest annual level since 2017, reflecting continued investor selectivity despite higher capital deployment.
Global fintech M&A activity strengthened, with deal value increasing from £32.9 billion across 829 deals in 2024 to £40.8 billion across 840 deals in 2025, led by strong US activity.
Global venture capital investment increased to £41.8 billion across 3,765 deals, up from £33.4 billion across 4,567 deals in 2024.
The US drove the largest VC gains, with investment rising year over year from £14.5 billion to £20 billion.
Corporate venture capital (CVC) was a standout, climbing from £15.4 billion across 1,408 deals in 2024 to £21.9 billion across 1,055 deals in 2025.
At the sector level, digital assets significantly outperformed 2024 levels: digital assets attracted £14 billion in 2025 - the third-highest year on record, up from £8.25 billion in 2024. Investment in companies focused on B2B products and services saw renewed momentum, reaching £9.9 billion, its strongest year since 2019.

Conversion rate accurate as of February 2026 from USD to GBP at the rate 1 USD = 0.74 GBP.