Fintech is Europe’s richest startup sector

Over the past three years €5.38bn has been ploughed into Europe’s growing fintech sector, accounting for nearly 20% of Europe’s overall growth-stage capital during this period.

The figures, compiled by Tech.eu and Stripe, also reveal how the UK took the lion’s share of the €30bn in European investment that went into growth-stage companies during this period, racking up funding rounds worth a combined €8.82bn.

France (€5.44bn) and Germany (€4.85bn) catching up, with the figures showing that growth-stage rounds into the two countries grew 27% and 26% respectively between 2017 and 2018, while the funding into UK growth-stage companies fell 3%.

“The European startup ecosystem is on the right track to create technology giants in the years to come,” said Guillaume Princen, Head of Continental Europe at Stripe. “Seed investment is strong and growth investment is getting stronger, year after year.”

Following not far behind fintech came medtech, with startups like Kry in Sweden, Doctolib in France and Babylon in the UK helping the sector to raise €4.22bn in growth-capital between 2016 and 2018.

Tech.eu and Stripe define ‘growth-stage’ as covering startups that have real products actually in the market, as opposed to idea-stage where products are in conception.

The report also found that fintech is the top sector for startup investment in the UK, Germany, and Sweden by a considerable margin, as well as in Europe as a whole.

While it’s commonly said that London is the capital of fintech, the figures show that in-fact Europe is a continent of fintech.

And across the continent companies like Monzo (UK), N26 (Germany) and Klarna (Sweden) are leading the way for Europe’s most promising sector.