Singapore’s finteach deals transactions value jumped 59% in 2021 to $3.94 billion across investment vehicles incuding venture capital, private equity and M&A transacitons, according to a report by KPMG Pulse of FinTech
The deal count for 2021 climbed 37% in 2021 to a record 191 fintech deals underscoring 91% higher than 2019’s count.
“One significant deal involved Singapore tech group, Grab, which listed a SPAC deal in the United States at US$500 million, resulting in a post-money valuation of $39.6 billion that made it among the top four fintech investments in Asia Pacific in 2021,” KPMG said.
Singapore posted record levels of investment in crypto and blockchain, with $1.48 billion across 82 deals in 2021, compared with $109.75 million over 26 deals in 2020, KPMG said.
“Cryptocurrencies and blockchain are expected to remain very hot areas of investment in 2022, with more crypto firms looking to regulators to provide clear guidance on activities in order to help foster and develop the space. In Singapore, the surge in investments into crypto and blockchain have also outpaced that of payments which long held the top spot here,” said Anton Ruddenklau, global fintech leader at KPMG International, said in the statement.
“Given how many banks are beginning to see the major limitations inherent in their legacy architecture and technologies, we are also expecting a surge in investment into banking replacements able to help them rethink core banking services,” Ruddenklau said.
Singapore posted investments in payments of $628.41 million in 2021, lower than cryptocurrency and blockchain-related investments, but still up more than nine-fold from $60 million in 2020, KPMG said.
“A continued interest in areas like ‘buy now, pay later’, embedded banking, and open banking aligned solutions have all helped keep the payments space robust,” KPMG said.
Within Asia-Pacific, fintech funding reached $27.5 billion in 2021, KPMG said.
Globally fintech funding across venture capital, private equity and merger and acquisition transactions reached $210 billion across a record 5,684 deals in 2021, with the second half accounting for $101 billion of the total, the statement said.
