The research has also found that the funding was raised through 1,707 deals, up from 1,480 in 2017. The surge in funding was due in large part to 52 mega-rounds (investments larger than USD 100 million), which were worth USD 24.88 billion combined.

The research further uncovers the following:

• a USD 14 billion investment in Ant Financial accounted for 35% of total fintech funding alone in 2018;

• in the last three months of 2018, five companies joined the rank of fintech “unicorns”: Brex, Monzo, and Plaid;

• venture capital investors have been pouring billions of dollars into fintech companies to gain market share from incumbent financial institutions;

• fintechs have emerged globally across all sectors of finance, including lending, banking, and wealth management;

• Asia saw the biggest jump in number of deals in 2018, growing 38% from 2017 and accounted for USD 22.65 billion;

• in the US, fintechs raised USD 11.89 billion through 659 investments, while the number of deals dropped in Europe, but funding reached USD 3.53 billion.