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Fintech VC's narrower rebound

The week that was

🚨 Deals deals deals

Credit score

Chart of the week

Data: PitchBook; Chart: Ryan Lawler/Axios

Global fintech venture investment rose sharply in the second quarter, even as investors backed fewer companies, according to PitchBook data.

Why it matters: More money is flowing back into fintech, but it is reaching a shrinking pool of companies.

By the numbers: VC investors put $16.5 billion into fintech startups in the second quarter, up 12% from the first quarter and 44% from a year earlier.

But deal count fell to 751, down 16% from the first quarter and 25% from the same period last year.

Fintech startups raised $31.4 billion in the first half of 2026, up 37% from the first half of 2025, while the number of deals fell 27% year over year, to 1,640.

Between the lines: Q2 had the lowest quarterly VC deal count since at least the start of 2020.

At the same time, it was one of the strongest quarters for total venture dollars invested in recent years.

Some of the quarter's largest financings included Kalshi's $1 billion round,  Cred's $900 million raise and Ramp's $750 million round.

Zoom out: Private equity activity moved in the opposite direction during the first half.

PE firms invested $23.1 billion in fintech, down 26% from a year earlier.

Deal count was roughly flat, suggesting firms continued to transact but at lower aggregate values.

The big picture: Combined VC and PE investment was nearly unchanged from the first half of 2025, as the increase in venture funding offset the decline in private equity investment.

1 big thing: Fintech VC's narrower rebound

This week, we covered new fintech funds, crypto payments infrastructure, embedded finance, construction software and stablecoin policy.

💰 Lachy Groom quietly raised a pair of $300 million VC funds, one for early-stage deals and one for even earlier-stage deals. Go deeper

💳 Nium acquired Cypher to offer on-chain wallets, crypto-funded cards and tools to move money between stablecoins and fiat to its enterprise customers. Go deeper

🧾 Aria raised an $8 million Series A extension and secured $275 million in debt financing to embed invoice financing into B2B platforms. Go deeper 

👷 Agave raised $15 million for a platform that gives construction field teams real-time financial data. Go deeper

🔀 Coinbase announced changes to its legal team, one year after the Genius Act was passed and as the Clarity Act appears close to following suit. Go deeper

2. The week that was

Illustration of a row of laptops with binary code, money and circles.

👉 GO HERE TO CATCH UP on all the fintech deals this week.

EDX Markets, an institutional crypto trading platform, raised $76m in Series C funding led by SBI Holdings. Go deeper

MoMo, a Vietnamese fintech, has received partial stake bids from Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners, and MUFG, per Reuters. MoMo has raised over $400m in VC funding. Go deeper

Hub International, a Chicago-based insurance broker owned by Hellman & Friedman, plans to seek around $3b in its IPO, per Bloomberg. Other backers include T. Rowe Price, Alpha Wave Global, and Temasek. Go deeper

3. 🚨 Deals deals deals

Illustration of two hands shaking with sleeves made from calculators.

🏦 Klarna applied for a U.S. bank charter. (CNBC)

🙅 The U.S. DOJ issued a memo stating that Binance would cooperate less in future cases. (The Information)

⭕️ Circle received approval to start a national digital-currency trust bank. (Bloomberg)

🔳 Block agreed to a $45 million settlement over a Cash App fraud probe. (Reuters)

🦑 Kraken is pursuing a full banking license in Europe. (CoinDesk)

🪙 Tether's former CIO is planning to sell a small stake in the stablecoin giant. (Bloomberg)

🇬🇧 Coinbase secured a U.K. investment services license from the FCA. (The Block)

4. Credit score

Illustration of a referee's hand holding a whistle and a red card that says "credit score."

5. Chart of the week

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July 11, 2026

1 big thing: Fintech VC's narrower rebound