Despite regular and frequent media reports about huge funds raised by fintech startups, the number of companies working in the field is actually far from record indices, Financial Times (FT) writes citing the research by Disruption House, Bloomchain.ru reports.

FT notes that during 2019, the news about investments into fintech startups came out with enviable regularity. The experts also highlight the level of investment, bringing up the example of little-known Hastee, which raised USD 208 million.

Another piece of evidence of investors’ interest in fintech projects is the appetite of British startup Revolut, FT writes. In particular, the company announced it planned to raise USD 1 billion to expand globally. According to experts, the goal does not correspond with the company’s achievements. Financial Times also notes that like many other fintech startups, Revolut has not been profitable for the most part of operation (except for the period in early 2018, when it started working with digital assets).

It is noteworthy that despite the popularity of this investment area, fintech industry is far from the peak height yet in terms of new projects. According to the data analyzed by Disruption House, active increase of the number of fintech startups took place between 2004 and 2015.

For comparison, 390 were registered in 2015 and just 75 in 2015. Experts point out that the tendency of decline remained in 2019 in terms of the number of new fintech startups – as few as 12 were registered as of early December.

The experts also highlight the risk that banks might copy the products of fintech startups. In their opinion, borrowing of technologies by traditional financial organizations may devalue the achievements of new companies. The researchers believe that the pressure could be causing the decline in the number of fintech startups registered every year.

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