China may have taken the top spot in 2016 fintech funding, but it wasn’t the one doing most of the investing.
While China claimed nearly $8 billion of the total $17.4 billion invested across the world, according to a report by U.K-based Innovate Finance, the top fintech investor for the year was 500 Startups—a Silicon Valley-based accelerator that made 39 investments in the sector during the course of 2016.
Trailing 500 Startups were London-based accelerator Startupbootcamp, NYC-based Techstars, and California-based Y Combinator.
China’s dominance over fintech funding is thanks in part to three VC rounds, which totaled over one billion (JD. Finance, Lufax, and, of course, Ant Financial). However, these accelerators top the list for volume, making the U.S. the leader when it comes to the number of deals — at 650 total.
While the amount of global fintech funding is up year over year, the actual number of deals made declined at almost the same rate.
The full VC report can be downloaded here.
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