Cyber security, regtech benefit from widespread adoption of AI
Trade
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According to KPMG’s latest Pulse of Fintech, the total investment volume in fintech within EMEA rose from €9.4 billion across 780 deals in the second half of 2024 to €11.6 billion across 759 deals in the first half of 2025. This represents a growth of more than 23%. Investments in digital assets and artificial intelligence (AI) were the main drivers of this increase.
While the global fintech market faced a sharp dip in investment in the first half of 2025, the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) was the only major market to manage growth.
The growth in EMEA contrasts sharply with the global trend, where total investment volume – including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) – fell from €46.1 billion across 2,376 deals in the second half of 2024 to €38 billion across 2,216 deals in the first half of 2025. This is the lowest half-year result since 2020.
In EMEA, the UK led the European rankings with €6.2 billion in investments, followed by France with €2 billion. Germany lagged behind previous results with €553 million.
In addition, several mergers and acquisitions took place, including Fiserv’s acquisition of CCV, which further strengthened Fiserv’s position in the European payments market.
Mostly so-called digital assets and AI attracted interest in the first half of this year. Digital assets attracted €7.1 billion globally, the largest share of fintech investments worldwide, led by a €1.7 billion capital round from Binance (Grand Cayman). This sector received €9.1 billion in all of 2024 last year.
In addition, AI was in high demand; globally, €6.1 billion was invested in AI within fintech, up from €7.6 billion in all of 2024. The focus was on applications that speed up and secure processes, such as KYC (know your customer), AML (anti-money laundering controls) and automated cyber security. Regtech (regulatory technology) also remained on the rise, partly due to stricter compliance requirements.
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