India beats China in fintech funding in March quarter

For the first time, India has surpassed China and became Asia’s technology hub. The Indian fintech sector has raised 50% more funding than its Chinese counterparts in the March quarter.

India’s fintech firms have raised $286 million in the first three months of 2019 as against the Chinese firms which have raised $192 million as per the data from CB Insights’ latest Global Fintech Report Q1, 2019. Both countries recorded 29 deals, reflecting a 60% increase for India and 40% decrease for China.

“India beats China as a fintech funding hub in Q1’19”, stated the report.

Also read: Payment Tech Giant Mastercard to Tap Indian Fintech Ecosystem

The increasing strain on the ecosystem due to the tighter regulations proposed by the Chinese central bank has caused an 89% decline in funding for fintech startups quarter-on-quarter. China saw its five-quarter low in fintech deal counts and investments.

While China’s central bank has been talking about setting up a regulatory framework for fintech, India has seen frenzied deal-making in the recent quarter. India reported a marginal increase in funding from the $225 million in December last year.

Mswipe, a mobile point-of-sale startup, raised $31 million in March, BharatPe, payments platform, raised $10 million, and NBFC’s Aye Finance’s raised $33 million. These were some of the biggest deals this quarter.

However, the cumulative investment in Asia saw a decline of 67% from the previous quarter, recording a total of $875 million (a five-quarter low), according to the report published by CB Insights.

   Globally, in the first quarter of 2019, Venture capital financed fintech companies raised a total of $6.3 billion from 445 deals.