Investment in Hong Kong fintechs more than doubled last year, well ahead of Singapore and Australia

Name: SCMP
Telephone: +852-2680-8888

Accenture analysis also shows value of mainland fintech investment halved, but numbers grew to 146 deals last year, compared with 54 in 2016, to US$2.8 billion

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Global investment in financial technology companies reached an all-time high of US$27.4 billion, a rise of 18 per cent year on year, though investment in mainland Chinese fintechs bucked the trend, declining by 72 per cent, year on year, to US$2.8 billion. Photo: Thinkstock

Alun John

Published: 7:01am, 1 Mar 2018Updated: 4:18pm, 2 Mar 2018

Investment in Hong Kong financial technology (fintech) firms more than doubled last year compared to 2016, as government support and their wider acceptance made companies in the sector more attractive to investors.

Amid what has been a global surge in interest, Hong Kong-based fintech investment jumped to US$545.7 million in 2017 from US$215.5 million in 2016 and US$107.5 million in 2015, according to an Accenture analysis of data from CB Insights, a global venture-finance data and analytics firm.

In 2017, global investment in fintech companies reached an all time high of US$27.4 billion, a rise of 18 per cent year on year, though investment in mainland Chinese fintechs bucked the trend, declining by 72 per cent, year on year, to US$2.8 billion.

The largest fundraising in Hong Kong last year was by WeLab, the mobile lending company, which raised US$220 million in November.

Musheer Ahmed, interim general manager of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, said two developments in the past two years had made Hong Kong’s burgeoning fintech community more attractive to investors.