Singapore fintech investments rose two-fold to US$365m in 2018

US$102.2m of the total funds raised went to lending fintech companies such as the homegrown Funding Societies.

Fintech investments in Singapore more than doubled to US$365m in 2018 from US$180m in 2017, putting the country amongst the top five fintech markets by funds raised last year in Asia Pacific, behind China, India, Australia and Japan, according to Accenture’s analysis of CB Insights data. The number of deals in the country rose to 71 from 61 in 2017, making it the third busiest market in the region, behind only China and India.

About 28% (US$102.2m) of the total funds raised last year went to fintech companies in lending, whilst those in payments took 26% (US$94.9m) and insurtechs 20% (US$73m), the data showed. Some of the firms that scored deals were Credit Management Services (CMS) provider AsiaCollect, which bagged $4.5m, and homegrown P2P lending platform Funding Societies, which bagged US$25m.

Eight of the top 10 deals ever in Singapore took place in 2018, including the US$60m cloud company Deskera raised in November, the US$52m insurtech Singapore Life raised in December and the US$32m cryptocurrency and blockchain startup Terra raised in August.

Divyesh Vithlani, managing director at Accenture and ASEAN Financial Services practice lead, commented, “The fintech market in Singapore is going from strength to strength. It’s great to see it reaching this level of activity and diversification, which just goes to show how much it’s matured the past years.

“The size of the market and the value of deals still have a lot to catch up to regional giants such as China and India, but Singapore is already the third busiest fintech market in the region and this level of activity bodes well for the future expansion of new technologies in many of the different areas of finance,” he added.

According to overall findings, global investment in fintech ventures more than doubled in 2018, to US$55.3b, led by a surge in funding in China and strong gains in several other markets as investors placed larger bets in more mature startups.

There was a ninefold increase in the value of deals in China, to US$25.5b — nearly as much as the US$26.7b from all fintech investments globally in 2017. China accounted for 46% of all fintech investments in 2018.