The US-China trade war took a toll on global fintech investments, which slumped 29% in the first half of the year.

Accenture says that fintech deals across the globe in the first half of 2019 amounted to $22 billion. That figure is sharply lower than $31.2 billion in the same period in 2018.

However, the number of deals increased by 2% to 1,561 this year.

Accenture: Ant Financial skews data

Adjusting the above figures for the $14 billion raised in 2018 by China’s Ant Financial Services, the operator of Alipay and an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, global fintech investments would be up 28% in the first six months of this year.

However, China lurched under the impact of the trade wars. Fintech investments in the country totaled just $820 million in the first half of 2018. That figure is down compared to $17.7 billion in the same period of 2018. Adjusting for Ant Financial, fintech fundraising was nevertheless down 79%.

Rest of the World

In the US, fintech investments in H1 2019 surged 60% to $12.7 billion, while in the UK fintech fundraising jumped two-fold to $2.6 billion.

However, the outlook is not too bright. “Fundraising is likely to reach a plateau soon and will most likely dip going forward,” warned Julian Skan, a senior managing director at Accenture.

Feature image source: Flickr