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Singapore fintech investment moderates in H1 2026 as capital concentrates in larger deals: KPMG

ID
18885
Status
summarized
Published
28 Aug 2026, 5:00 AM
Fetched
28 Aug 2026, 9:15 AM
Provider
Digital News Asia
Category
malaysia-tech
Original URL
https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/business/singapore-fintech-investment-moderates-h1-2026-capital-concentrates-larger-deals-kpmg
Source URL
https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/rss.xml

Summary

Score
5.5
Created
28 Aug 2026, 9:16 AM
Tags
Audience
saas_foundersdevelopers

What happened

KPMG's Pulse of Fintech H1 2026 report shows Singapore fintech investment fell to US$499M across 53 deals, down from US$1.45B across 97 deals in H1 2025—the weakest first half in nearly a decade. A single US$320M cross-border payments round in June accounted for roughly two-thirds of the half's total, while most remaining deals went to early-stage tokenisation, digital-asset, and AI/ML infrastructure startups.

Why it matters

Malaysian founders eyeing Singapore for funding should expect a market where investors concentrate capital behind a few scaled, high-conviction platforms rather than spreading bets—early-stage deal volume has roughly halved year-on-year. If you're building in payments, digital assets, or AI/ML infrastructure, those are the verticals still attracting capital; outside them, fundraising in Singapore will likely be harder than in 2025.

Discussion angle

What does Singapore's funding concentration mean for Malaysian startups that treat Singapore as their default fundraising market—are there verticals or stages where KL or other SEA markets now make more sense?

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