KPMG Report: Singapore FinTech Investment Triples to $61.5 Million in Q2’17
A new report from KPMG has found that fintech investment in Singapore more than tripled to $61.5 million in the second quarter of the year.
In a report from The Strait Times , it states that while there were seven deals in the last quarter, in Q2’17, there were only four Singapore fintech deals.
However, while the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has been continuing to push the sector in the country it has changed gears. Now it’s focused on attracting companies to the country and promoting fintech adoption compared to education and innovation.
Mr Chia Tek Yew, the head of financial services advisory at KPMG Singapore, said:
Over the longer term, MAS hopes to see more fintechs using Singapore as a base to pilot and then deploy solutions into other countries within Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and Thailand.
In July, it was reported that the Singapore and Thailand central banks had entered a FinTech Cooperation Agreement (CA) to further develop and enhance the existing financial ecosystem in the ASEAN region.
It’s hoped that they will create a ‘richer financial ecosystem’ by sharing new information and emerging market trends on micro-financing and digitization.
Singapore has also entered agreements with countries including Denmark, the Americas and the U.S. to further promote and strengthen fintech ties.
In April, it was reported that IBM had partnered with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to train students on the blockchain in Singapore. Starting from January 2018, students will learn the fundamentals of fintech with a focus on the blockchain technology and its use cases in a range of areas such as supply chain management and banking.
Mr Chia Tek Yew, added:
There seems to be a major push to transform Singapore into the world’s blockchain leader, with an ever-increasing number of use cases in the country aimed at testing blockchain in government trade, land registry and tax functions, in addition to traditional banking and insurance.
Total fintech investment across Asia saw $760 million invested across 51 deals during Q2’17. A slight drop from the first quarter, which brought in $790 million across 56 deals.
Global investment into fintech companies more than doubled in the second quarter of 2017 compared to the first, to $8.4 billion across 293 deals, said KPMG. However, venture capital funding for financial technology companies saw a slight decline from the first quarter to $2.5 billion.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
