(Yicai Global) Aug. 24 -- Chinese financial technology companies raised more than USD1.3 billion in the first half of this year, reaching the highest six-month sum since the second half of 2019.

The tally had been USD900 million in the second half of 2020, professional services giant KPMG wrote in a biannual report yesterday.

The fintech landscape should remain robust in most regions of the world in the second half of this year, the report added. The segment of payments should continue to lead while the fields of revenue-based financing solutions, banking-as-a-service models, and business-to-business services are expected to attract increasing levels of investment.

China's Diversifying Fintech Sector

This year, different types of companies in China were appealing to investors. From January to June, some of the firms whose fundraisers exceeded USD100 million were medical payments company MediTrust Health with its USD155 million, wealthtech developer WeBull (USD150 million), and data management firm Xuncetech (USD108 million). B2B solutions provider XforcePlus raised USD100 million.

"China’s fintech market is incredibly mature next to many other jurisdictions, with investments in areas like payments really taking off a few years ago and a number of clear leaders emerging," said Andrew Huang, partner and fintech leader at KPMG China.

The field is becoming bigger but the deals are getting smaller. "Now what we’re seeing isn’t megadeals in those very mature areas, but rather an increasing number of smaller deals focused on less mature sectors of fintech — like B2B services, wealthtech, and insuretech,” Huang added.

The global financing environment is improving. In the first half of 2021, fintech investments, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity fund investments, and venture capital transactions, hit a historic high. The tally increased by almost 13 percent to USD98 billion from six months before that, said KPMG.

Editor: Emmi Laine