FinTech venture funding continues to increase.
A total of $520 million was invested in financial services startups last quarter, up from $289 million during the last quarter of 2014 and $321 million, in the same quarter last year — a 62% year-over-year increase — according to new data from PricewaterhouseCoopers’s MoneyTree report. By comparison, venture funding overall fell to $13.4 billion last quarter, from $14.9 billion the previous quarter, although 26% higher than in 1Q14.
In all, PwC recorded 16 financial services funding rounds last quarter, compared to 14 during the previous quarter.
Financial services, which has been a hot VC sector over the last couple of years, ranked No. 6 among all sectors receiving venture funding. Software ranked No. 1. Last on the list of sectors was “Business Products and Services,” with but $6 million of venture funding last quarter. Only five of the 17 sectors PwC tracks saw an increase in dollars invested last quarter; financial services was one of them.
A total of 1,020 venture funding deals were completed last quarter.