Asia fintech leads global funding as Alibaba and Baidu wallets thrive

Sector raised $30bn last year, nearly double North America tally

Ant Financial, which operates the Chinese mobile payment platform Alipay, raised $14 billion from investors last year.

TOMOMI MITOBE, Nikkei staff writer

February 27, 2019 03:54 JST

TOKYO -- Asian financial technology companies raised $29.8 billion in 2018, almost twice as much as their North American counterparts, with investors looking to the region as the vanguard in innovative payment services.

About 54% of the world's $55.3 billion in fintech investments last year went to the Asia-Pacific, according to data released on Feb. 25 by U.S. consulting firm Accenture, with China alone accounting for 46% of the total.