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Chart: Fintech Investment in 2016

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Fintech Investment in 2016

Chart: Fintech Investment in 2016

Overall numbers are down, but banks step up their game

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

According to a new report by Singapore-based venture capital firm Life.SREDA, last year was a mixed bag for fintech.

On the one hand, the Money of the Future Report pegs 2016 as the first year to have an overall decrease in fintech funding after taking into account any outliers. By their calculations, dealflow slowed in the last couple of quarters of the year, while the amount of funding flowing into fintech fell 6% to $19.1 billion.

On the other hand, the one deal that was considered an outlier was a big one: Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial, the world’s second-largest unicorn (behind Uber), raised a Series B of $4.5 billion in early 2016. That’s the largest ever fundraising round for a private tech company.

Further, for the deals that were done in 2016, one could say there was an element of quality over quantity. Established financial institutions are no longer sitting on the sidelines for fintech – in fact, banks have increased the number of investments in VC-backed fintech companies by 61% since the previous year.

Who’s Banking on Fintech?

Some banks are more active than others.

JP Morgan, at one end of the spectrum, only booked three fintech deals last year, which is the same as they did for 2015.

Companies like Barclays and Goldman Sachs have more of a shotgun approach: get in on as many fintech companies as possible. Barclays invested in 23 deals in 2016 for a 53% increase in activity, while Goldman got in on 17 deals for a 31% bump in activity.

Partnerships and product integrations, accelerators and innovative labs, direct investments and venture debts, corporate VCs and fund-of-fund investments — banks started to use all available mechanisms in order not too lose in the digital war with the new hungry players.

Money of the Future Report

Even though Barclays and Goldman Sachs are both heavy investors in the space, each has a different rationale behind their tactics. Goldman Sachs invests in fintech startups solely with expectations of a financial return, while Barclays and banks such as BBVA are looking for more strategic investments that can also enhance their core businesses.

Regardless of the differing tactics and rationales, it looks like banks are officially in the tech game for good. The question is: can hulking, conservative institutions like banks be agile enough to make use of these upcoming investments – and will they pay off?

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Visualizing Internet Usage by Global Region

In this infographic, we map out internet usage by global region based on the latest data from the World Bank.

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Map showing internet usage by region.

Visualizing Internet Usage by Global Region

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Digital technologies have become an integral part of our daily lives, transforming communications, business, health, education, and more. Yet, billions of people around the world are still offline, and digital advancement has been uneven.

Here, we map internet usage by region based on data from the World Bank’s Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023.

Digitalization Has Been Uneven

According to the World Bank, between 2018 and 2022, the world gained 1.5 billion new internet users.

In 2020 alone, the share of the global population using the internet increased by 6% (500 million people), marking the highest jump in history. India, in particular, has seen high rates of adoption. For example, in 2018, only 20% of Indians used the internet. By 2022, this percentage had grown to more than 50%.

RegionIndividuals using the internet (% of population)
East Asia & Pacific74
Europe & Central Asia87
Latin America & the Caribbean76
Middle East & North Africa77
North America92
South Asia42
Sub-Saharan Africa34

However, the progress of digitalization has been uneven both within and across countries.

In 2022, one-third of the global population remained offline, with parts of Asia and Africa still experiencing very low rates of internet usage. For instance, more than half of businesses in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Senegal reportedly lack internet connection.

According to the World Bank’s report, when fast internet becomes available, the probability of an individual being employed increases by up to 13%, and total employment per firm increases by up to 22%. Moreover, firm exports nearly quadruple with the availability of fast internet. Across Africa, 3G coverage has been associated with a reduction in extreme poverty, with reductions of 10% seen in Senegal and 4.3% in Nigeria.

Curious to learn more about the internet? Check out this animated chart that shows the most popular web browsers since 1994.

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