UK fintech investment reached $7.2billion in the first six months of 2025, down from $7.6billion a year earlier as geopolitical uncertainty and market volatility weighed on deal activity, KPMG’s latest Pulse of Fintech report shows.
The total was bolstered by a string of large transactions, including BlackRock’s $3.1billion acquisition of private markets data group Preqin and $500million raises by both Rapyd Financial Network and FNZ.
While deal volume edged up to 216 transactions, activity slowed sharply in the second quarter, signalling a more subdued market than the post-pandemic highs of 2021.
According to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report, a bi-annual report on fintech investment trends, the UK still remains the centre of European fintech investment, with British fintechs attracting more funding than their counterparts in the rest of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region combined.
EMEA was the only major region to see fintech investment grow – from $11.1billion across 780 deals in H2’24 to $13.7billion across 759 deals in H1’25. The largest EMEA deals outside of the UK included the buyout of cloud platform Esker for $1.6billion by the investment group Bridgepoint.
Hannah Dobson, partner and UK head of fintech at KPMG UK, said: “Although UK fintech investment experienced a slight decline in the first half of the year compared to 2024, it is encouraging to observe the continued resilience of the UK fintech sector despite the challenging macroeconomic environment.”
“Key initiatives to keep an eye on in the UK’s fintech scene in the next few months include the FCA’s partnership with Nvidia. The new sandbox will allow banks to tinker with computing and AI enterprise software, primarily for testing and research prior to deployment.”
KPMG’s H1’25 highlights
- Global fintech investment hit $44.7billion across 2,216 deals, the slowest half-year since H1 2020
- Global M&A fell from $26.7billion to $19.9billion; PE from $4.4billion to $1.3billion; VC edged up from $23billion to $23.4billion
- EMEA was the only region to grow, from $11.1billion (780 deals) to $13.7billion (759 deals)
- The Americas led overall with $27billion (1,093 deals), down from $35.7billion (1,150 deals)
- ASPAC saw $3.9billion (362 deals), down from $7.3billion (444 deals)
- Crypto drew $8.3billion vs $10.7billion in all of 2024; AI $7.2billion vs $8.9billion; regtech also surged ahead of 2024’s pace.
