Fintech investments in Asia fell to US$3.85b in 2017

This was dragged by lower fintech deals in China.

KPMG reported that total fintech investments in Asia decreased to US$3.85b in 2017, from over US$10b in the previous year.

Fintech PE activities in Asia only closed eight deals amounting to US$0.4b during the year, declining from 10 deals worth US$1.7b in 2016. M&A activities also decreased to 37 deals worth US$898.4m, from 43 deals worth US$1.84b in the previous year.

During the fourth quarter, there was only one fintech deal in China, which was the acquisition of BiWang Group by CollinStar Holdings for over US$100m, dragging Asia’s total fintech deals for the whole year.

“As China’s central government continues to tighten controls around customer-facing internet finance activities, we have seen a major shift in fintech business strategy. Fintech companies that might have started with a customer focus are now embracing a B2B model, providing their solutions to traditional financial institutions in order to avoid the growing compliance requirements,” KPMG China’s partner and head of banking Arthur Wang said.

Aside from blockchain technology, financial inclusion is forecasted to be a rising area of focus this year, KPMG said.