Which European country is attracting the most fintech investment?

Ahead of London Fintech Week this week, the organisers have put out some research into global fintech (financial technology) investment over the last 5 years.

The research, from consultancy William Garrity Associates, shows pretty clearly that Britain is a huge hub for investment.

Over 10% of global fintech investment has gone to the UK and startups based here have pulled in more than the rest of Europe combined.

William Garrity Associates/London Fintech Week

The UK’s $5.4 billion (£3.5 billion) of total investment is still dwarfed by the US though, which pulled in $31.6 billion (£20.5 billion) of the total $49.7 billion (£32.3 billion) invested globally as the above map shows.

The research also points out that fintech investment is exploding right now — 25% of the entire $49.7 billion invested over the last 5 years has been just in the first half of this year. That’s $12.7 billion (£8.2 billion) being pumped into fintech companies around the world just six months.

Big deals for UK fintech companies include international money transfer business TranferWise raising $58 million (£37.7 billion) from Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz at the start of the year and peer-to-peer small business loan platform Funding Circle raising $150 million (£97 million) in April.

The William Garrity research shows the three biggest areas of investment globally are payments, loans, and finance-specific cyber security.

This article is published in collaboration with Business Insider. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Oscar Williams-Grut is a reporter on the markets desk in London.

Image: A man types on a computer keyboard. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel.