The UK’s FinTech sector will see a wave of acquisitions this year says Tim Levene, Chief at Augmentum Fintech

IN BRIEF:

The UK’s FinTech sector will see a wave of acquisitions this year as cashed-up banks and investment firms will swoop in to buy struggling firms on the cheap

The downturn in funding looks likely to continue in the first quarter of this year as VC firms sit out turbulence and big institutional investors

Levene notes that banks have failed to properly digitally transform over the past decade and would now be looking to shortcut innovation with FinTech dealmaking

What does this mean?

Levene explains that ““I look at the balance sheets of the banks and the insurers and the asset managers and they’re sitting on a lot of cash, a huge amount of cash” and “the vast majority of the hundreds of billions that have been deployed and digital transformation [by traditional finance firms] has been wasted, and so they have to acquire, and acquire sensibly. I think we will see more [deals], because valuations have relatively dropped.”