CBInsights recently published its State of Fintech report for the second quarter of 2026. Overall, global funding for the first six months of the year totaled $26.4 billion, raised in 1,695 deals, with deal activity declining in the second quarter. Deal volume fell 25% quarter over quarter; funding declined 20% from the preceding quarter. The United States accounted for 273 deals in the quarter, which raised $5.1 billion. Mega rounds (deals raising over $100 million) raised $6.9 billion across 27 transactions. Mega rounds accounted for 59% of all global funding in Q2. The largest equity deals in the second quarter included: Ramp ($750m); Ebury ($678m); CRED ($500m); and Clip ($405m). There were four new unicorns that emerged in the quarter, three of which are U.S. companies, including: Digital Asset; Rogo; Slash; and Nesto. This brings the total to 195 fintech unicorns in the United States. The top five unicorns by valuation in the second quarter of 2026 include: Stripe; Revolut; Ramp; Ripple; and OKX.
According to the report, there were four fintech IPOs completed during the quarter, with OnEMI Technology as the largest. M&A activity in the sector also was down for the quarter, with one notable exit, which was the Russian neobank Tochka.
In its FinTech Strategic Insights, FT Partners noted similar overall trends. As to the IPO market, the report noted a much more subdued second quarter following a notably busy first quarter for fintech IPOs (five completed IPOs in the first quarter: BitGo; Ethos; PicPay; AgiBank; and PayPay). There are five fintech IPOs that are in the filing queue for 2026 IPOs although their timing is uncertain. FT Partners pointed to the resilience in large (and principally later stage) financing rounds, including rounds like those for CRED ($900 million Series H), Ramp ($750 million Series F), Ebury ($742 million strategic financing), among others. Although private fintech deal count fell in the second quarter, capital continues to concentrate in fewer, larger transactions. Second quarter M&A volume totaled $24.3 billion, a decline from 2025 levels. There were some notable strategic transactions completed during the quarter. These included, for example, Bullish’s $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti, the transfer agent, which brings together a traditional transfer agent into a tokenization platform; Nuvei’s $2.75 billion acquisition of Payoneer, consolidating cross-border payments companies; and Wafra’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Navitas, highlighting continued interest in specialty finance. And, last but not least, SPACs are back, including fintech sector SPACs, with some notable de-SPAC transactions having been consummated, including Securitize, which started trading recently.