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Fintech investment has once again hit the headlines this month, with Britain reaching a new record. Throughout the first half of 2021, Britain invested in nearly £118bn worth of deals – A record for Britain. As well as being an investment amount that places the UK second in the world behind only the US. It isn’t just the UK that has seen a surge in fintech investment. During the final 6 months of 2020, the total global fintech investments came to $87.1bn, whereas in the next 6 months during 2021 there was $98bn of investments made – quite a large increase in fintech investment numbers.
A Surge in Fintech Investments
The recent buying spree is a surprise to many, who thought that Brexit and the failure to secure a decent deal would affect the financial sector. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. In fact, a recent report by Pulse of Fintech shows that UK investments amounted to £17.7bn. There are different reasons for this; however, a large purchase by the London Stock Exchange of Refinitiv would have had a big impact. However, there were 283 new deals in total – big numbers by anyone’s standards. The good thing is that all of this investment is doing great for many industries; which can only be a good thing for British business in general.
Small-Start Up Businesses
Although there were a number of industries that benefited from this record-breaking investment, small start-up businesses are definitely on the radar. It is estimated that Venture capital firms were responsible for over £7bn of the total investments – which is double the number of similar investments made in the last 6 months of 2020.
There are many theories as to why this might be the case, but since the pandemic, there has most definitely been a focus on supporting small businesses. When various industries were forced to close, people started to see that small businesses were struggling without the same assurances and investments that bigger names had. As such, a real focus was made on supporting independent and local businesses. It seems that this has followed through to bigger level investments as shown by the number of UK fintech investments that have been made so far this year.
iGaming and Casinos
Those that have been following how well various industries have been doing well should not be surprised to know that the casino and iGaming industry has also done well when it comes to fintech investment throughout 2021. There were a handful of industries that saw financial benefit from the pandemic and online gaming is most certainly one of them. With no option to visit traditional bookmakers and land-based casinos, those that wanted to place bets had to do so online. As such, the number of people using online casinos and the number of bets increased.
What Does The Future of Fintech Look Like?
Technology is always changing and adapting and the technology behind financial industries is no exception. For example, the online casino industry doing well will be largely down to the recent changes in technology and how the industry has evolved in order to keep up with customer demand.
On top of this, the busier the industry gets the more likely they are to then invest further into evolving technology and as such, the world of technology changing is one that is constantly moving.
Across the finance industries, customers are starting to be more demanding of their companies and as such, it is essential that companies do what they can to keep up with this demand. For example, most people feel it is no longer to wait 3-5 business days for a bank transfer to reach someone – instead, they expect the whole thing to be more or less instant. Most online banking services offer this and any that don’t are likely to lose a chunk of their customer base, as people move towards financial companies that can keep up with their needs.
The casino industry is just another example of the importance of fintech and how consumers are demanding more. In the past, when someone was lucky enough to win at an online casino they would have expected to wait a few days for their prize money and would have been happy with this. That is not the case with modern gaming, where casinos pretty much are forced to offer instant pay out of prizes – otherwise, their punters are likely to take their business elsewhere.
For example, there are plenty of independently reviewed casino payout speeds display operators who have worked closely with fintech businesses to keep up with the demand for fast withdrawals from consumers.
Realistically, it is impossible to say what the fintech industry is going to do in the future and hard to know whether we’ll continue to see record-breaking numbers when it comes to investment. One thing for sure is that when it comes to technology in general, we’re starting to embrace it and become more reliant on it. As this becomes more and more the case, it is likely that the companies behind it will need more investment which will give the fintech industry even more reasons and opportunities to get involved. There is no denying that 2020 was a strange year for many industries which may have halted some investment opportunities, but the world is opening up once again and fintech investors seem really keen to grab this opportunity and run with it – let’s see what the 2nd half of 2021 brings!
