Pulse of Fintech H1 2026

Explore the H1’26 insights

Global highlights of H1’26

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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Fintech investment globally on positive trajectory with investment highly concentrated

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 payments company. Should this level of investment continue, the fintech market is well positioned to reach a
four-year investment high by the end of the year. The strong deal value amid softer deal activity reflects fintech investors continuing to concentrate their capital on fintechs with proven business models and those viewed as market leaders.

Americas drives fintech market momentum as EMEA and ASPAC regions see softer start to the year

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. The strength of the US market highlights how it continues to be viewed as the trendsetter in fintech in many ways, with many other jurisdictions looking to it for fintech capabilities.

In contrast, the EMEA region saw fintech investment fall from $18.0 billion in H2’25 to $11.3 billion in H1’26. A combination of geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties — and domestic political and tax uncertainties in the UK — likely contributed to this softness. In the ASPAC region, fintech funding fell from $7.1 billion to $4.6 billion.

What the ASPAC numbers don’t reflect, however, is the unique nature of China’s mature fintech market; in China, fintech investment primarily occurs outside of traditional VC, PE and M&A activity, whether through internal corporate investments or partnerships and alliances.

Both M&A and PE investment in fintech grow between H2’25 and H1’26; VC investment holds steady

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. 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.

After being quiet for some time, PE investment saw a revival in H1’26, rising from $2.7 billion to $3.6 billion between H2’25 and H1’26, including an eleven-quarter high of $2.6 billion in Q2’26. Markedly, global PE deal volume rose from 58 deals in H2’25 to 65 in H1’26, while both M&A and VC deal volume dropped.

CVC investment rises in H1’26, powered by investment in digital currencies space

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. The strong uptick in investment highlights the sense of urgency among corporates as traditional corporates look to drive efficiencies and gain critical capabilities and mature fintechs look to expand their offerings and gain scale.

The digital assets space was particularly hot for CVC investors in H1’26, driven in large part by the participation of the venture arms of major crypto platforms, and crypto infrastructure companies, looking to expand the digital assets ecosystem and related infrastructure.

After several years of contraction, fintech investment is clearly finding its footing again. While deal volumes remain muted, the increase in capital deployed, and the resurgence of exits, signal growing investor confidence, particularly around scalable platforms in digital assets and AI. As liquidity improves, we expect this renewed momentum to translate into stronger deal activity over the year ahead.

Anton Ruddenklau

Global Lead of Fintech and Innovation, Financial Services

KPMG International

Fintech segments

Payments consolidation once again propels significant deal value

Investment in the payments space jumped in H1’26, reaching $44.2 billion compared to the $20.2 billion seen during all of 2025. The vast majority of the uptick came from an outlier deal: the $24.3 billion acquisition of a global payments company. This deal is reflective of a broader capital allocation theme we’ve seen over the last 18 months.

Investors remain confident in payments, but they are choosing to deploy larger amounts of capital to fewer transactions, and favoring scaled, profitable, and infrastructure-focused businesses over early-stage speculative investments. This trend is also reflected in the continued slide in deal volume; there were 168 payments deals in H1’26, compared to an already subdued 577 in 2025.

Insurtech space attracts $3.7 billion in investment during H1’26

After reaching a four-year high of $9.8 billion in 2025, driven largely by a small number of outsized deals rather than by a more broad-based improvement, total investment in insurtech fell to $3.7 billion in H1’26. Deal volume was particularly soft at 124 deals globally; should this trend continue, it will be the weakest deal volume since 2016. The slowdown is not a failure, so much as an industry shift driven by maturation of the space, the introduction of AI, and the increasing need for insurtechs to move from providing simple fix solutions to ones able to address more complex, complicated industry challenges.

Fintech-focused cybersecurity investment remains steady in H1’26

Global investment in fintech-focused cybersecurity firms was $550 million in H1’26; while steady next to the level of investment seen during 2025 ($1 billion), it remained soft compared to previous years. Deal activity was particularly slow in the cybersecurity space, on track for a six-year low with just 44 deals at mid-year.

VC investment saw the largest share of cybersecurity funding, accounting for the three largest deals globally during H1’26: the $180 million VC raise by a US-based business intelligence and governed communication platform, the $120 million raise by a UK-based crypto compliance, analytics, and threat intelligence company, and the $73 million raise by a India-based identity verification and fraud detection platform.

Digital assets space remains hot, with $11.1 billion in investment in H1’26

During H1’26, total global investment in the digital assets space was $11.1 billion across 467 deals; while down compared to the $21.9 billion across 1,335 deals seen during all of 2025, this total remained very robust, exceeding annual totals from both 2023 and 2024. The US accounted for more than half of the total investment in digital assets seen in H1’26 ($5.9 billion), despite accounting for less than half of deals volume (187).

The largest deals in the digital assets and crypto space occurred in the US, including a $1.2 billion raise by a US-based prediction market, and a $635 million seed round by a new US nationally chartered bank focused primarily on providing niche services related to defensetech, compute tech, and advanced manufacturing. The largest deal in the EMA region was a $175 million VC raise by France-based on-chain lending network provider, while the largest in the ASPAC region was a $150 million raise by Australia-based perpetual futures trading platform.

Regtech on steady course with $2.9 billion in global investment during H1’26

During H1’26, regtech attracted $2.9 billion in total global investment; this was a slightly stronger pace of investment compared to the $4.8 billion seen during 2025, despite deal volume, 133 deals in H1’26, falling to its lowest level since 2017. The Americas attracted the majority of regtech investment, including the three largest deals of H1’26: a $385 million raise by tax compliant savings solutions platform, a $200 million raise by AI-powered AML/KYC risk intelligence company, and the acquisition of a Brazil-based B2B banking and risk management technology company for $178.1 million. A UK-based blockchain analytics and crypto compliance company’s $120 million VC raise was the largest regtech deal in the EMEA region, while a $70 million raise by China-based global trade payments and risk management company was the largest in the ASPAC region.

VC, PE and M&A investment in wealthtech incredibly soft in H1’26

Investment in the wealthtech space remained incredibly soft, at least in terms of VC, PE and M&A deals during H1’26. During the period, 32 wealthtech deals accounted for just $220 million globally, down from $1.4 billion across 74 deals in all of 2025. Should this weak trend continue, the space could see the lowest level of investment since 2018.

Deal sizes in the space were quite small during H1’26, with the largest transaction a $42.5 million PE growth round by a US-based asset management platform. The largest wealthtech-specific round in the EMEA region was particularly small: a $13.9 million raise by a Denmark-based scalable wealth management operating platform.

AI-focused fintechs attract $21.4 billion in deal value across VC, PE, and M&A

AI remained a predominant theme for investors across fintech, particularly corporates looking to drive efficiencies. During H1’26, AI-related deals attracted $21.4 billion across 800 deals, just shy of the $23.6 billion seen during all of 2025.

In the Americas, particularly in the US and Canada, AI continued to be a dominant investment theme, with many investors looking to it as an opportunity to drive operational efficiencies and value creation in areas like fraud prevention and AI-enabled payments