Fintech Exit Activity Sees Robust Growth

The Financial Technology (fintech) sector has seen a lot of exit activity over the past few years. How does the number of exit events trend over time? Based on our fintech research platform, we have analyzed the data through 2017 and can conclude that fintech exit activity is seeing continued robust growth.

This observation was derived from two takeaways:

• Fintech exit events are demonstrating strong annual growth
• Fintech exit events are increasing at the quarterly level as well

We’ll illustrate these takeaways with two graphics that show the solid growth of fintech exit activity over time.

Fintech Exit Events Showing Strong Annual Growth

We’ll start off by examining the fintech exit events from 2011 to 2017. Exit events include both acquisitions and Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). The below graph shows the number of annual fintech exit events stacked by quarters.

Fintech Exits by Quarter – Stacked

This graph illustrates that fintech exit activity is demonstrating strong growth year over year. In fact, the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in exit activity grew by 49% from 2012 to 2017. In addition, the number of exit events in 2017 is the highest ever and amounts to a 133% growth year over year.

Let’s now see if this trend holds at a quarterly level.

Fintech Exit Events Increasing At the Quarterly Level

Below is a graph of the number of fintech exit events by quarter.

Fintech Exits by Quarter – Cluster

The above graph shows that the overall fintech exit activity is on an upward trend at the quarterly level. Generally speaking, each quarter in 2017 saw a larger number of exits than in 2016. The number of exit events in Q4 2017 is 106% of that in Q4 2016. Q1 2017 was a particular outlier, seeing a huge 189% increase over Q1 2016. The only exception is Q2 2017 which fell slightly from Q2 2016.

From these two graphics we have now seen that fintech exit activity experienced vigorous growth at both the annual and quarterly levels.

Conclusion: Fintech Exit Activity Is Seeing Robust Growth

In summary, we have seen that the number of fintech exit events is showing strong growth year over year. Moreover, these exit events are increasing at the quarterly level as well.

We can conclude from these takeaways that fintech exit activity is seeing continued robust growth–which corresponds with our conclusion from the fintech funding blog post that the fintech sector is maturing as a whole. It’ll be interesting to see if this trend continues into 2018.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section below.

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