Fintech funding reached $11bn in 2018, a 38 percent jump year over year; banking startups focused on customer data, trade digital currency and artificial intelligence for security and compliance purposes were some of the main drivers behind the jump; there were 184 deals worth over $100mn in 2018, including monster rounds for Coinbase and Plaid; AI focused companies raised over $9bn, which was a 72 percent jump from 2017; “The reason why fintech is drawing all this attention is because it’s well defined what the rules of the game are,” said Ryan Gilbert, partner at Propel Venture Partners, to American Banker. “Customer acquisitions remains key and the technology has to be proven to make an impact.” Source.
