As of November 2018, global FinTech investing reached $35.5B across 1,431 deals, a new annual high. Funding surged on the back of a record number of mega-rounds, including Ant Financial’s unprecedented $14B investment.
2018 has already minted 15 new unicorns including digital banking startup Revolut, a Mastercard Start Path portfolio company, as well as POS payments provider Toast, among others.
Globally, 37 privately-held FinTech unicorns have a combined valuation of approximately $142.17B. Several startups raised mega-round investments, boosted their valuations, and will use funding to expand into adjacent products. Payroll provider Gusto, for example, entered the lending marketplace, and Revolut will look to go East in 2019 with recent approvals of remittance charters in Singapore and Japan.