FinTech companies raised $28.6 billion worldwide in H1 2026, up 22.7% from a year earlier, even as the number of investment deals fell 25.7%. Capital continued to concentrate among larger market participants and companies focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and financial infrastructure.
According to business intelligence platform Crunchbase, investors funded 1,605 FinTech startup deals between January and June 2026. During the same period in 2025, they completed more than 2,160 deals. Compared with H1 2024, the number of funding rounds declined by about 40%.
Total funding was 22.7% higher than H1 2025, but 17.3% lower than in H2, when the sector raised $34.6 billion. Even so, funding in H1 2026 exceeded the annual totals recorded in 2019 and 2020, although the market hasn’t yet returned to the record levels seen in 2021.
The three largest recipients of capital were:
- the U.S.: $15 billion, or more than 52% of global funding;
- the U.K.: $2.7 billion;
- India: $1.9 billion.
Investors primarily allocated capital to wealth management, payments and banking infrastructure, enterprise process automation, money transfers, stablecoins, and recordkeeping for tokenized real world assets on distributed ledgers.
Artificial intelligence also emerged as a key growth driver. FinTech companies used AI to automate borrower assessments, detect fraudulent transactions, generate financial recommendations, support tax accounting, and streamline audits. In some cases, AI solutions completed tasks in minutes that previously required teams of analysts several weeks to finish.
At the same time, investors warned about the risks associated with the rapid adoption of AI. Areas of concern included companies without a clear customer acquisition strategy, new stablecoin networks, low margin credit card startups, and software providers serving traditional banks with long procurement cycles. The market also paid closer attention to cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and oversight of automated decision making.
Market participants expect capital to remain concentrated in the largest companies during H2 2026. Category leaders are likely to secure funding rounds worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while smaller and less established companies may find it more difficult to raise capital.
FinTech investment reached a record $136.5 billion in 2021. Investment declined over the following three years, but the trend turned positive again beginning in 2025.
