Asian wealthtech firms snap up 15.5% of investment in 2014-2018

They still fall flat of Europe and North America’s dominance.

WealthTech firms in Asia continued to gain traction in the global stage as they snapped up 15.5% of investment from 2014-2018 although they still rank behind counterparts from North America and Europe that accounted for 41.3% and 35% of investments respectively during the four-year period, according to FintechGlobal.

Asian WealthTech firms have gradually grown prominence amidst a steady increase in deal activity from 10.8% in 2014 which rose to 18.1% in 2016 but tapered off slightly to 16.3% in 2017. 

Also read: Singapore fintechs give China a run for its money

On the other hand, companies in North America attracted a smaller share of transactions from 54.8% in 2014 to 38.0% 2018. “Although, this share increased slightly, by 3.4 percentage points (pp) last year, it is clear that the US is loosening its hold on the global WealthTech market as FinTech hubs start to form in other regions around the world,” the report’s authors said.

In the personal finance subsector which accounted for 44.3% of total deal activity over the last five years, the series C round of China-based u51.com holds the title as largest deal. The startup raised $310m in 2016 and has hauled in $459m across five funding rounds since 2012.

Europe has also been making steady headway after it held the top spot in the highest deal share of any region in 2017.

Companies in Rest of World attracted 8.2% of total deals last year, a 2.3 pp increase since 2014. Out of all the WealthTech transactions completed in Rest of World across the last five years, 47.3% were raised by startups based in Australasia and 32.4% were raised by South America-based companies.

Globally, wealthtech firms raised $4.6b in capital across 220 deals in 2018 which represents a 65.9% increase from the previous year. US-based Robinhood’s $363m Series-D round was the biggest deal of the year followed by UK challenger bank Revolut.