FinTech fundraising: 2020 barometer

Jan 4, 2021 | News, Publications

“France FinTech, the professional association of French fintech, insurtech and regtech, publishes its annual fundraising barometer.

2020 will have been a year with an atypical profile, like a global economic environment heavily impacted by the crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic. On the whole, companies in the sector resisted well and raised € 828,2 million in 63 transactions, an increase of 18,5% compared to 2019.

2020: a “three-beat waltz”…

The year started vigorously with major operations such as Qonto (neo-bank for professionals) € 104m and Lydia (banking / PFM and payments) € 40m, both of which welcomed international investors. € 253M were raised in the first quarter, or 36% of the total amount for 2019, as an extension of the strong growth of recent years.

From the second quarter, the movement slowed down significantly due to the consequences of the first confinement and the resulting climate of uncertainty. The gradual deconfinement made it possible to re-establish a certain momentum with € 123,2 million raised in June. Summer and autumn were marked by a wait-and-see attitude, apart from the significant fundraising of € 100M from Dataiku (Financial decision-making tool by data) in August.

The year ends, as it started, on a very positive trend. The amounts invested in December (€ 143,9 million) are close to those in January, with three major operations in particular: Luko (Home insurance) € 47,5 million, Pigment (financial decision-making tool by data) € 24,1 million and Lydia, € 72M, which thus completes its financing round at the start of the year of € 40M to reach € 112M over the year as a whole, i.e. the most important series B for a French fintech.

In this extremely disturbed context, French fintechs post a fine annual performance with € 828,2 million. They do significantly better than the European market (-7%) and represent an increased proportion of fundraising in the digital sector in France (15% of fundraising in 2020 against 13% in 2019).

Acceleration and development of new uses

The analysis of transactions reveals some interesting trends that confirm the maturity of the ecosystem:
• the very purpose of these surveys, focused on commercial development, diversification of models, a more assertive technological component and internationalization,
• increase in the average ticket (€ 13,1 million, or + 20,6%) with continued seed operations (43,5% of fundraising, 37,1% for series A)
• the ability to raise major tickets: 3 transactions over 100 million, 6 over 40 million euros.
• the arrival of several international investors (USA, UK, China, Singapore in particular), which demonstrates the attractiveness of our players and of the French market, a privileged gateway to Europe.
• finally, a marked growth in the valuations of leading players, which thus reduced part of the gap compared to European (UK in particular) and American champions.

The acceleration of sectors that are already well established:
• Insurtechs are experiencing the strongest growth (21% of fundraising, 5 points more than in 2019) with the development of neo-insurers, on-demand and parametric insurance providers or of data management functionalities.
• Payment (15,3% of fundraising) and neo-banking (31%) services are strengthening, in particular thanks to strong growth in digital uses and effective implementation of DSP2 (applications linked to open banking ).

Finally, beyond this phenomenon of acceleration and emergence of leaders, vertical by vertical, certain innovative uses have appeared such as:
• so-called “operational” services, dealing in a very innovative way with invoice and expense reports, or offering solutions dedicated to the purchasing or HR function. These represented almost a quarter of the raises (23,5%).
• impact models: green neo-banks, responsible investments, carbon footprint measurement, financial education.

It is of course not possible to envisage the profile of the year 2021 at this stage, as the health and economic uncertainties are great. Our ecosystem still faces the new year with resolve and confidence. »

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