Investments in fintech companies stood at $2.64 billion in 2020, up by 6% from $2.49 billion in the previous year, according to a report by Connexdoor, a marketplace platform for startups. While fintech payments platforms attracted the lion's share of funding last year, investors have been channeling their funds to early stage startups, the report said. Overall, 137 fintechs raised funds last year through 157 deals, of which 76 deals were early stage rounds. The biggest deals last year include PhonePe's $788 million deal in December 2020, Navi Capital's $457 million capital infusion in April and Razorpay's $100 million Series D round in October last year. "While Investors remained cautious for high ticket sized deals, the number of deals in 2020 increased to 157 by 24% from 127 deals in 2019. Thereby indicating confidence in the Indian Fintech ecosystem and setting the right momentum for the coming year. A higher investor attraction was witnessed towards the budding early staged Fintechs, confirming the growing confidence for the Indian Fintech ecosystem" — Connexdoor Fintech Journey: The 2020 Origin Report Investors return to Early Stage funding Overall, the number of early stage deals increased to 76 deals worth $138 million in 2020, double the amount raised in the previous year. The three top early stage investors include Better Capital (6 deals), Sequoia Capital (6 deals) and Venture Catalysts (3 deals), the report said. Lending fintechs garnered 27% of the total early stage funding Financial inclusion fintechs raised 20% f the total early stage funding…
