Fintech Secures 11% of Global Venture Funding, Second Only to AI

2026-01-25 - 21:06

In 2025, the fintech sector secured 11% of global venture funding, ranking second only to artificial intelligence (AI), new data released by CB Insights show. Fintech companies raised a total of US$52.7 billion globally during the year, underscoring the sector’s continued importance as a major startup vertical and a key investment focus. The figure marks a strong rebound from the previous year. Total funding venture capital (VC) funding increased 35.5% year-over-year (YoY) from US$38.9 billion in 2024, signaling sustained appetite for fintech investments. Deal count, however, declined, falling nearly 19% YoY from 4,474 deals in 2024 to 3,631 in 2025. This suggests that investors are making fewer but larger bets on more mature and established fintech companies. This trend is further reflected in deal sizes. In 2025, the average fintech deal rose to US$20 million, while the median increased to US$5 million, representing YoY growth of 55% and 43%, respectively. Meanwhile, early-stage deals fell to their lowest level in at least five years, accounting for just 65% of all fintech transactions. Annual fintech equity funding and deals, Source: State of Venture 2025, CB Insights, Jan 2026 Accounting and finance, as well as asset and financial management and trading, secured some of the sector’s largest transactions. Notable deals included Point’s US$2.5 billion round, Kalshi’s US$1 billion Series E, and FNZ’s US$650 million raise. Founded in 2018, Kalshi is a prediction market that allows users to trade on real-world events. The platform records weekly trading volumes exceeding US$1 billion, up more than 1,000% from 2024, with millions of users engaging across more than 3,500 markets each week. Valued at US$11 billion, Kalshi is now focusing on accelerating consumer adoption, expanding brokerage integrations, and broadening its product offerings. FNZ is a global wealth management platform offering an end-to-end solution that integrates technology, business operations, and investment services. Its capabilities span the investment front office, tax wrappers, and investment back office. FNZ works with 650 financial institutions and more than 12,000 wealth management firms worldwide, serving over 26 million end investors globally. In 2025, the company won new mandates and renewed partnerships with leading financial institutions. It also entered a strategic partnership with Microsoft and launched major AI-driven products designed to enhance the productivity of financial advisers. FNZ’s US$650 million raise, secured in November, will strengthen its financial position and supporting its long-term strategy. The capital will reinforce its credit ratings and enable continued investment in technology, people, and products. Global tech venture funding in 2025 Globally, tech startups raised US$469 billion across 29,501 transactions in 2025. The figure represents a 47% YoY increase in venture funding from US$319.6 billion in 2024, alongside a 17% YoY decline in deal volume, mirroring fintech trends. In parallel, mega-rounds of US$1 billion and more surged 77% and accounted for 65% of total funding, further highlighting the growing concentration of capital in larger, more established ventures. Quarterly equity funding and deals, Source: State of Venture 2025, CB Insights, Jan 2026 AI dominated VC activity in 2025, raising US$226 billion and capturing a record high 48% share of global funding. The biggest rounds were secured by OpenAI and Anthropic. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, raised a total of US$41 billion during the year. Its most recent round, a US$22.5 billion raise in December, will help cover the rising costs of training and operating large-scale AI models amid intensifying competition. OpenAI is reportedly seeking additional funding, targeting up to US$100 billion at a valuation of as much as US$830 billion. It’s also preparing for a potential initial public offering (IPO). Anthropic, the developer of AI assistant Claude, raised US$32.5 billion in 2025. In September, it closed a US$13 billion Series F to expand its capacity, meet growing enterprise demand, and support international expansion. Since it launched Claude in March 2023, Anthropic has experienced rapid growth, reaching an annualized run-rate revenue of approximately US$1 billion in early 2025. By August 2025, that figure had surpassed US$5 billion, making Anthropic one of the fastest-growing technology companies in history. Today, Anthropic serves over 300,000 business customers, and its number of large accounts, customers that each represent over US$100,000 in run-rate revenue, has grown nearly sevenfold in the past year. Anthropic is reportedly gearing up to raise an additional US$10 billion at a US$350 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal, as the startup moves closer to a possible IPO this year. Annual venture funding, Source: State of Venture 2025, CB Insights, Jan 2026 Beyond AI and fintech, robotic companies gained momentum in 2025, raising a record US$40.7 billion. The sector, spanning humanoid robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, robot foundation models, and supporting hardware, accounted for 9% of all venture funding, ranking third overall. Industrial humanoid robots led all markets with 80 deals. Meanwhile, physical AI model developers, which build AI models designed to act in the physical world, ranked among the top markets by Mosaic score, a CB Insights metric which assesses a company’s health, growth, and success potential. Annual funding to companies developing robotics hardware and software, Source: State of Venture 2025, CB Insights, Jan 2026 Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by thanyakij-12 via Freepik