SG, HK among top five fintech ecosystems globally in 2021: report

Singapore and Hong Kong were among the top fintech ecosystems in the world in 2021, according to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report: Fintech Edition from Startup Genome.

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Hong Kong is also a newcomer among the top five – which includes Silicon Valley, New York City, and London – thanks to the number of fintech-focused accelerators and incubators it has as well as the number of local investors backing early-stage funding rounds in the city-state.

China’s largest city, Shanghai, moved down five spots from the 11th spot in 2020 as it saw a 22% decrease in the number of exits over US$1 million. The city also saw a 41% drop in series A rounds since the last rankings.

Overall, North America and Asia were both home to eight fintech ecosystems in the top 25, while Europe had six.

The report also identified 2021 as a record year for unicorns: Of the 200 unicorns minted between 2017 to 2021, 138 were crowned in 2021.

Africa was also a big winner in 2021, as total deal amounts for fintech series A fundraising rounds in the continent climbed almost nine-fold. The report said the increase was largely thanks to large deals such as digital wallet PalmPay’s US$100 million and mobile bank Kuda’s US$25 million funding rounds.

However, the report also found that the number of series A deals closed in the first half of 2022 was down 23% from the previous year and 17% lower than the first half of 2020.

Still, global fintech saw 534 exits of about US$287 billion in total value. Four of those exits – namely Coinbase at US$86 billion, Nubank at US$42 billion, Robinhood at US$32 billion, and One97 Communications at US$16.8 billion – also made it into the top ten global exits overall in 2021.

See also: ‘My job is to fix the problem of my customers’: fintech execs discuss early strategies