A new report released by KPMG International and CB Insights said $4.9 billion was invested in venture-backed fintech startups around the world during the first quarter of 2016. According to Quartz, that is 96 percent more than was invested in the first quarter of 2015. 

The report noted that if funding continues at this rate for the rest of the year, overall funding to venture-backed fintech startups will increase 36 percent in 2016 as compared to 2015. 

China leads the way
China is currently the leader in fintech investments, with the two largest deals taking place there. Lu.com and JD Finance, both based in China, took part in deals of over $1 billion. The third-largest deal went to Oscar Health Insurance, who raised $400 million in startup funding in a Series C funding round. The report authors predicted that China will continue to lead the way in the second quarter as well, especially considering a $4.5 billion funding round for China-based Ant Financial already closed in April. 

James McKeogh, a management consulting partner at KPMG Hong Kong said Asian banks are increasingly experimenting with fintech in search of long term results.  

"...this is going beyond the traditional accelerators into more long term results driven mechanisms, rather than marketing led publicity campaigns," McKeogh said.

Trends in fintech
The report also discussed a few fintech trends, such as the fact that North American investors seem to be less focused on payments, which is probably due to a saturated market.

Two concepts in which investor interest is growing on a global scale are robo advisors and InsuranceTech. The U.S. is currently ahead of Europe and Asia in the development of robo advisor technology, though the report predicted that overall investment will continue to grow as the market matures. 

Daniel O'Keefe, a subject matter expert on robo advisory for KPMG U.S. spoke in the report about how robo advisors will develop in the future. 

"In the future, we will likely see a broadening focus of digital advice including a much more holistic view of the clients' assets, income and liabilities; not just the assets under management for that given platform," O'Keefe said. 

Bloomberg explained that the extreme growth of investment in fintech companies is happening despite an overall harsh funding climate for startups. The publication referenced an earlier report from KPMG International and CB Insights, which said that in 2016 there are more startups receiving markdowns or down rounds than there are startups becoming unicorns. 

Content presented by Bridge Bank, offering flexible, customized solutions for entrepreneurs.