Fintech Industry's Financial Environment
In the ever-evolving world of fintech, the landscape of funding has undergone a significant transformation, as outlined by Tom Filip Lesche, a partner at the renowned venture capital firm Speedinvest, based in Vienna.
Lesche describes the current funding landscape for fintech startups in 2025 as one marked by greater selectivity and a shift in investor strategy compared to pre-pandemic times. Investors today are more cautious yet focused on quality and scalability, favoring startups with deeper technology and clear revenue pathways rather than broad speculative bets.
This shift is reflected in various key points related to Lesche’s perspective and corroborated by recent data. Global fintech funding has grown, with over $24 billion invested in the first half of 2025 across approximately 2,600 deals, showing a 6% increase from the second half of 2024. This suggests a robust ecosystem but one that values execution and substance over hype.
Early-stage (seed) fintech funding is more cautious, showing a decline or drop in average round sizes with more deals but concentrated capital around high-quality teams. Meanwhile, late-stage and growth-stage rounds are receiving larger and more selective funding, indicating investors prefer backing companies closer to profitability or scale.
Lesche and other industry leaders also highlight a trend toward fintech startups leveraging AI and addressing foundational financial infrastructure, moving away from broad thematic hype and toward sustainable, defensible models.
Pre-pandemic fintech funding was often characterized by rapid, broad-based enthusiasm and volatility. Since the pandemic, there has been a "recalibration" with investors demanding clearer paths to revenue and sustainable growth rather than speculative high-risk bets. This reflects a maturation of the sector and a more disciplined capital allocation approach.
The podcast hosted by Lesche covers the fintech funding scene from before the pandemic, through the funding drought, to the current situation. It provides perspectives from both investors and fintech founders, offering insights into the changing landscape of risk capital providers. Investment rounds are getting smaller, and the emergence of "zombie funds" - those that lack the capacity to invest - is a part of this changed risk capital landscape.
Speedinvest, with its impressive fintech portfolio including companies like Bitpanda, Upvest, Billie, Wefox, and Holvi, has been active in the funding scene for some time. Kevin Hackl, another key figure at Speedinvest, is based in Vienna and is involved in discussions about Open Finance, Retail Investing, Crypto Assets, and Digital Euro. Hackl is also a community builder and lobbyist for financial themes at the digital association bitkom.
Hackl primarily focuses on Payment, Banking & FinTech Bubble, and is involved in dialogues with regulators and politics. He is also a partner at Speedinvest, and Tom Filip Lesche, who is also an entrepreneur himself, shares the same passion for the fintech sector.
In conclusion, the fintech funding landscape in 2025 is robust but more disciplined and selective than in pre-pandemic years, focusing on quality teams, AI-enabled infrastructure, and late-stage growth opportunities with clear profitability horizons. Early-stage investment is still present but done with greater care and concentration on high-potential startups.
The fintech funding landscape in 2025, as described by Tom Filip Lesche, a partner at Speedinvest, emphasizes investing in quality teams and scalable technology, with a shift away from broad, speculative bets. This trend is evident in the growing fintech funding, totaling over $24 billion across approximately 2,600 deals in the first half of 2025.
In the fintech sector, industry leaders like Lesche and Kevin Hackl, another key figure at Speedinvest, are focusing on late-stage and growth-stage rounds for companies with clear revenue pathways, while early-stage funding shows more caution and concentration on high-potential startups leveraging AI and addressing foundational financial infrastructure.
