Fintech gold rush tipped as KPMG finds Australian investment hit $842m in 2018

Big four professional services firm KPMG has tipped even more funding will come for Australian fintech players in the wake of new open banking rules and the banking royal commission, despite a huge rise in deals taking spending to $US600 million ($842 million) in 2018.

In new local figures derived from its biannual global Pulse of Fintech study, KPMG said deals in the local sector picked up last year, following a drop-off in 2017, when capital raisings, acquisitions and IPOs had fallen to $US200 million.

The report found that globally a record $US111.8 billion was invested in fintech firms in 2018, with Asian funding reached a new high of $US22.7 billion in 2018 across 372 deals.

KPMG said the $US600 million in Australian investments occurred across 28 deals in total, with the largest being the $US245 million sale of Avoka Technologies to Swiss tech company Temenos in December.

KPMG Australia head of banking and global co-lead for fintech Ian Pollari said that private equity and merger and acquisition activity had added to VC funding to drive local industry growth, and flagged the emergence of the open banking regime as a major catalyst for further local fintech start-up growth in 2019.

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Source: Fintech gold rush tipped as KPMG finds Australian investment hit $842m in 2018