VCs flocking to "lucrative" APAC payments segment: report

Global VC deals rose to 620 in Q1 2021.

The payments segment is increasingly getting lucrative for venture capitalists (VCs) in Asia Pacific as digital payment firms continue to disrupt the global payment value chain, reports GlobalData.

The disruption is more prevalent in China and India, the report said. The number of VC deals in the global banking and payments industry rose from 461 in Q4 2020 to 620 in Q1 2021, much higher than the previous three quarters.

Payments remain popular, with online payments driving five of the top 10 VC deals during the quarter.

With the rising usage of digital financial services in Asia during the pandemic, investors are trying to get a piece of the pie, GlobalData noted.

For instance, Singapore’s Grab Financial Group received $300m in Series A funding in January 2021. In March, India-based offline-to-online (O2O) commerce platform DotPe raised $27.5m in Series A funding, the first O2O company in the country to receive such a substantial amount within a year of launch.