Singapore heads fintech funding in APAC

Fintech investment in the Asia-Pacific region saw a slight record high, increasing from US$50.2 billion across 1,604 deals in 2021 to US$50.5 billion across 1,227 deals in 2022, according to the KPMG Pulse of Fintech H2 ’22. In Singapore, fintech investments hit a three-year high of US$4.1 billion across 250 deals in M&A, private equity (PE), and venture capital (VC) in 2022, which was a year-on-year increase of 22%, and a 75% increase from 2020.

The top three areas for fintech investment globally in 2022 were payments, crypto/blockchain, and regtech, with Singapore’s top three being crypto/blockchain, payments, and wealthtech. KPMG noted that there was a growing focus on developing B2B fintech solutions in the Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore, over the last year. The report also predicted that crypto players and investors would show interest in jurisdictions in the region, such as Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, that already have strong crypto regulatory environments following the meltdown of FTX.

The payments sector is expected to continue to attract the largest deals in the Asia-Pacific region, with payments companies in Southeast Asia shifting their focus from customer acquisition to extending their value and deepening their engagement with customers. KPMG also noted that regtech had seen incredible investment in Singapore in 2022, while seed-stage deals received excellent attention from investors after years of late-stage deals getting priority.

Overall, fintech investment in Singapore saw impressive growth in 2022, despite the ongoing pandemic. KPMG highlighted that the country has emerged as a fintech hub in the region and that investors have been showing more interest in early-stage fintech companies. The report predicts that fintech investments in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region will continue to increase, with fintech expected to play an even more critical role in the financial sector in the coming years.