Fintech Funding Jumped 27% In 2025 With Fewer Deals But Bigger Checks

Global venture funding to fintech startups climbed in 2025 to its highest level in several quarters, boosted by later-stage deals, 附近上门 data shows.

Total global funding to VC-backed financial technology startups totaled $51.8 billion for the year, per 附近上门 . That鈥檚 a fairly significant 鈥� 27% 鈥� increase from 2024鈥檚 total of $40.8 billion raised.

Unsurprisingly, the numbers are still much lower than the peak of $141.6 billion raised in 2021 and the $90.2 billion raised in 2022. But they are trending upward at least, unlike in 2024, when they fell below 2023 levels.

And, for the first time in recent years 2025 funding totals came in above pre-pandemic sums, which were $50.8 billion in 2020 and $49.3 billion in 2019.

Deal flow, however, was down 鈥� signaling fewer, but larger rounds. The year saw 3,457 deals consummated, a 23% decline from the more than 4,486 completed in 2024.

Large deals
‘Chasing the AI-hype cycle’
鈥楩light to quality鈥�
Methodology
Glossary of funding terms

Large deals

The fact that the sector experienced an increase in funding despite a lower deal count indicates that the first half of 2025 saw a number of large rounds. Interestingly, several of the largest deals involved blockchain or crypto companies and prediction marketplaces.

In October, trading prediction market raised $2 billion in a deal led by parent .
In March, cryptocurrency exchange received a massive $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based investment firm .
And in early December,聽 New York-based announced it raised $1 billion in Series E funding at an $11 billion valuation. Crypto-focused investment firm led the financing.
Crypto exchange in November raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation.

Other sizeable deals that occurred during the year include U.K. payments platform 鈥檚 $500 million haul in mid-March; HR and payroll startup $450 million Series G in May; and expense management platform 鈥檚 $500 million Series E-2 at a $22.5 billion valuation in late July and $300 million raise at a $32 billion valuation in November.

鈥楥hasing the AI-hype cycle鈥�

All the VCs we spoke with said they believe 2021 and 2022 were outlier periods for venture funding. The record funding during those years were driven by 鈥渢he Covid-19 rebound and ultra-low interest rates,鈥� said , managing director at , who is based in New York and focuses on investments in the firm鈥檚 financial services sector, including financial technology.

鈥淎fter a reset, a more constructive overall market in 2025 has driven renewed investor appetite, albeit with investor selectivity around scale and quality in a world with continued uncertainty,鈥� he wrote in an email interview.

VCs appear to be just fine with funding not returning to those elevated levels.

put it this way: 2021 and early 2022 were not healthy markets for the tech or startup industry as a whole. Fintech got a disproportionate amount of capital because of the COVID “everything is going digital” craze.

鈥淭oo much money was chasing too few great founders,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here would be four to five companies building the same thing, with business models that shouldn’t have been funded in the first place, and in many cases none of them were successful because none of them got to scale.鈥�

鈥楩light to quality鈥�

Returning to the pace and exuberance of 2021, isn鈥檛 necessarily desirable or sustainable, according to 听痴笔 , who believes fintech is seeing a continued flight to quality with capital increasingly concentrating on companies with differentiated ideas, clear execution and 鈥渂ona fide traction.鈥�

Meanwhile, it has become meaningfully harder for others to raise.

鈥淭hat dynamic helps explain why total funding dollars are up even as deal volume is down,鈥� he told 附近上门 News. 鈥淚 think the level of activity we saw in 2025 is healthy. At the earliest stages 鈥� the pipeline remains very strong, particularly across AI and stablecoins. Those areas have real structural tailwinds.鈥�

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 附近上门, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Jan. 4, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

附近上门 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 附近上门 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 附近上门 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 附近上门 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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