Data: London FinTechs Netted $3.6B In VC Investments So Far In 2020

London’s FinTech sector has been going strong this year, even in spite of the pandemic, with $3.6 billion in venture capital investments between January and September 2020, according to a press release from London & Partners emailed to PYMNTS.

London is in second place globally with those numbers, the release stated, with first place going to San Francisco with $5.1 billion in investments. New York City is also high up there, with $2.2 billion in investments.

In terms of deal count, London is in first place with 169 deals so far this year, ahead of San Francisco’s 107 deals and Paris’ 40 deals, according to the release.

The pandemic has dealt blows to many markets, but so far, London’s FinTech market appears to be coping well, the release stated, with data suggesting that around 95 percent of the U.K.’s FinTechs have survived the worst effects of the pandemic.

Global investments are below the levels of pre-pandemic days, but London FinTechs have surpassed their 2018 venture capital totals of $2.3 billion, according to the release. FinTechs account for 44 percent of all venture capital investments in London tech companies this year. There are 2,183 FinTech companies in London, and some of them, like cross-border payments firm Checkout.com, have seen exponential growth during the pandemic.

London & Partners CEO Laura Citron said the U.K.’s FinTechs have long innovated to meet challenges.

“World-leading FinTech scaleups were born in London out of the 2008 financial crisis, and today London’s FinTech companies are innovating to respond to changing demands caused by the pandemic,” she said, according to the release. “These new investment figures show London is a well-established global FinTech capital, and I am confident we will continue to see growth in the city’s biggest tech sector. The U.K. capital is a natural home for FinTech because it combines the power of global financial markets with a deep tech talent pool, supportive regulation and an early-adopting customer base.”

The U.K. isn’t emerging unscathed, though. The country faces 23 billion pounds (about $29.6 billion) in potential losses from loans given out to support businesses during lockdown periods.