Deals are also proceeding at a frenetic pace. PitchBook, another data provider, reckons that venture-capital firms have sold $70bn in stakes in fintech startups so far this year, nearly twice as much as in all of 2020, itself a bumper year . That included 32 listings. Fintechs took part in 372 mergers in the first quarter, including 21 of $1bn or more.
The current investment boom has several novel features beyond its scale. For a start, it is increasingly focused on the biggest firms, says Xavier Bindel of JPMorgan. Smaller me-toos and startups with business models that have struggled during the pandemic are no longer in favour. The first quarter of 2021 saw the most funding rounds ever for private fintech startups valued above $100m; the median round raised $10m, a quarter more than in the same period last year.
This broadening out points to one explanation for the explosion in funding: the huge growth in the market for fintech offerings during the pandemic. Consumers and companies adjusted with rapidity and ease to the closure of bank branches and shops and the resulting digitisation of commerce and finance. Many of their new habits are likely to stick.
Stripe, the most valuable private fintech firm in the West, is a good example of the sector’s coming of age. It was set up a decade ago to help firms accept payments online. Now worth $95bn, it also offers services ranging from tax compliance to fraud prevention. That breadth was partly achieved through acquisitions; since October it has bought three other firms.
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