Investments in financial technology in India nearly doubled to $3.7 billion in 2019, making the country the world's third largest fintech market, according to an analysis by Accenture Plc.
"Fintech investments in India nearly doubled to $3.7 billion in 2019 from $1.9 billion the previous year, putting the country as the world's third largest fintech centre, behind only the U.S. and U.K.," Accenture's analysis of data from CB Insights showed.
As many as 198 fintech deals were signed in India last year, up from 193 in 2019.
Investments in payments companies more than tripled to $2.1 billion from about $660 million in 2018, while funding into insur-techs rose 74 percent to $510 million.
A majority of funds raised last year in India went into payments startups (58 percent), while insur-techs raked in 13.7 percent of the investments. Fintech firms in the lending space accounted for 10.8 percent of the total, according to the data.
Also Read: Sachin Bansal Bets His Flipkart Dollars On Mobile-First Banking
One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of Paytm, raised $1.66 billion from two separate transactions, while PhonePe and Razorpay garnered $210 million and $75 million, respectively. Other large transactions included $282 million raised by PolicyBazaar and $120 million by CRED.
Also Read: India’s Neo-Banks: What’s So ‘Neo’ About Them?
Fintech investments rose sharply in most major markets in 2019, led by gains in the U.S. and the U.K. and emerging economies such as India and Brazil, it said. Despite those gains, the total value of fintech deals fell 3.7 percent to $53.3 billion in 2019 from $55.3 billion in 2018.