Far from cooling off, investments in European and Israeli FinTech startups continue to be on the rise.
By our count, **95 financial technology companies raised capital in the first quarter of 2016**, three times as many as in the same quarter a year ago, and almost double the amount from Q4 2015.
That means there was a European FinTech company announcing an investment round every day in the first quarter of the year, on average.
These 95 funding rounds **combined for €500 million**, becoming the vertical where most capital was deployed by investors in Q1 2016, if Spotify’s $1 billion debt round is taken out of the equation.
The total in funding is also the second-highest quarterly amount we've recorded for Euro FinTech in the past five quarters - only the third quarter of 2015 saw stronger performance in terms of volume.
European FinTech companies raised €1.9 billion in 2015, across 196 rounds.
**> Purchase our ‘The State of European FinTech in 2015' report for just £149**
'Payments' continues to be the area that attracts the most entrepreneur and investor attention in Europe and Israel, with 21 deals completed in the first three months of 2016. 'Lending', 'proptech' and 'insurtech' followed, with 11, 9 and 6 investments, respectively.
Unsurprisingly, the UK preserved its position as the leading FinTech hub in Europe (and possibly worldwide), with 23 investments, or 25% of all funding rounds last quarter. Six of the top 10 Euro FinTech investments in Q1 2016 belonged to British companies. Germany, Sweden, France and Israel rounded the top 5, with 14, 13, 10 and 6 rounds, respectively.
The largest deals of the period were Starling Bank (€64 million), WorldRemit (€41 million) and Spotcap (€31 million).
Next on the list? FinTech exits, of which there were _just_ three in Q1 2016.
**Also read:**
An interview with Klarna’s CEO on fintech, Stockholm, London and Europe
European mobile payment startups SumUp and Payleven confirm merger
UK fintech startup GoCardless raises $13 million
Media giant ProSiebenSat.1 leads ‘double-digit’ Series D round for German fintech startup Auxmoney
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