Fintech is Back Baby… But the Story Has Changed (Part 1)

We all remember the mood music this time last year. “Fintech winter” had become a cliché. Deals were slow, exits were rare and a lot of leadership meetings revolved around runway, not roadmaps.

Fast‑forward to early 2026 and the picture looks very different. Not giddy 2021 exuberance, but something more grown‑up: capital coming back, exits reopening, and investors putting serious money behind a narrower set of winners.

For UK fintechs, that’s both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity is clear: the market is thawing. The challenge is that how you tell your story now really matters if you want to be one of the companies that benefits.

As a Partner at Clarity working with fintechs across the ecosystem, I’m seeing the same question crop up again and again: “If investment is rebounding, how do we make sure our story cuts through… with investors, regulators, partners and customers?”

Let’s start with what the data actually says, and then look at what that means for PR and comms in the UK this year.
KPMG’s latest report is the clearest sign that the worst of the downturn is behind us. After three years of decline, global fintech investment climbed back to $116 billion in 2025, up from $95.5 billion in 2024. Deal volumes continued to fall (to 4,719, an eight‑year low), but there was more capital going into fewer, larger, more selective deals.

Two Things in the KPMG Report Are Particularly Important for Communications:

1. Exits are back. Exit activity surged to more than $100 billion in 2025, the third‑highest year on record. That’s a very different backdrop from the “stuck in private markets” feeling of the last couple of years.
2. Digital assets and AI are pulling serious weight. Digital‑asset‑focused fintechs attracted around $19.1 billion, and AI‑focused firms about $16.8 billion. These aren’t side‑bets; they’re now central to the fintech growth story.

There is a distinct change of tone and after years of contraction, fintech is finally finding its footing again. But it’s not the same game we were playing in 2021. Zoom in on the UK and the nuances become even more important.

Whilst total UK fintech investment fell by about 21% in 2025, dropping to roughly £8 billion from £9.8 billion in 2024, the UK remains Europe’s fintech leader.

In fact, British fintechs:

• Attracted over a third of all EMEA fintech funding in 2025
• Drew more capital than fintechs in France, Germany, the Nordics, Ireland, China and Brazil combined

That apparent contradiction - “five‑year low, but still the regional leader” - is exactly what your audiences are trying to make sense of.

Investors see a market where the easy money has gone, later‑stage and larger deals dominate, and there is renewed appetite for scalable, compliant, B2B‑focused platforms, particularly in areas like payments infrastructure, risk and digital assets.

At the same time, the wider UK financial ecosystem is doubling down on innovation: from the Treasury’s move towards issuing a digital gilt on blockchain to BlackRock experimenting with tokenised funds tradable on DeFi rails. It’s a mixed picture, but the signal is clear: London is still the place to be, it’s just not as forgiving as it used to be.

For me, the most important shift is mindset.

The Companies Attracting Interest Now Tend to Have Three Things in Common:

1. Grown‑up growth stories
   KPMG talks about “selective growth” and “clearer paths to profitability”. In communications terms, that means investors (and the media) have far less patience for vague TAM numbers and far more appetite for hard evidence: margins, retention, unit economics and disciplined expansion.
   
2. Credibility in regulated markets
   If you’re operating anywhere near Consumer Duty, payments, credit, or digital assets, the bar has moved. The firms that stand out are the ones who can talk fluently about conduct, governance and customer outcomes, not just UX and speed.
   
3. Real integration into the financial system
   The rebound in M&A and corporate venture, and the wave of exits back into public markets, reflects a simple reality: fintechs that plug into existing rails, serve institutional needs, or help incumbents modernise are often faring better than those trying to replace everything.

All of that should directly shape how you approach PR and comms this year.

Where This Leaves UK fintechs – and What Comes Next

So where does that leave you if you’re running or advising a fintech in the UK?

You’re operating in a market where:

• Capital is back, but it’s more discerning.
• London is still the hub, but not the soft landing it once was.
• Regulators, investors and customers are all asking sharper questions about resilience, risk and real‑world impact.

The upside is that good businesses finally have the wind at their backs again, especially those with clear stories and disciplined execution. But in a world of fewer, bigger, more selective bets, it’s no longer enough to be “innovative” in vague terms. You need to be crystal clear on:

• Why you deserve to be one of the winners in this next phase.
• How you prove that, not just in a pitch deck, but in the way you show up publicly, day in, day out.

That’s where communications and PR stops being a nice‑to‑have and becomes a real competitive lever.

In Part 2, I’ll dig into the practical side of this: how fintechs can use PR and comms in 2026 to move from noise to signal , telling the grown‑up version of their growth story, turning regulation into a trust asset, and building leadership voices that actually influence how capital, partners and customers respond.

Image source: BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash