Payment fintech funding doubles in H1 as infrastructure leads

Expect growing interest in agentic commerce and AI-driven payments in H2, says KPMG.

Financial technology (fintech) companies in the payment space continued to see strong investment activity in H1 2026, with infrastructure and vertical payments attracting interest.

Globally, fintech investment in the payment space reached $44.2b in the first six months of the year, more than double the $20.2b funding that the space received for the whole year of 2025, according to data from KPMG.

The majority of this is made up by the $24.3b acquisition of Worldpay by Global Payments, KPMG said in its H1 Pulse of Fintech report published in October.

“Investors remain confident in payments, but they are choosing to deploy larger amounts of capital to fewer transactions, and favoring scaled, profitable, and infrastructure-focused businesses over early-stage speculative investments,” KPMG said.

Payments infrastructure continues to be on investors’ radar, particularly the digital assets and stablecoins space, the report said.

KPMG expects payment infrastructure companies to increasingly acquire assets and companies in order to scale more quickly.

The vertical payments space also gained momentum in H1, with growing interest in payment-related workflows in areas like healthcare, KPMG said.

Other verticals, such as restaurant services, fitness and wellness, and travel are also gaining attention, the report said.

“Companies are increasingly focused on outcomes such as cash flow optimization, faster receivables, more efficient payment workflows, and industry-specific value propositions,” Courtney Trimble, lead of global payments of KPMG International said in the report.

The business-to-business payments space was still “hot” in H1, but investors have become highly selective, KPMG said.

KPMG said that investors are focusing their capital on companies with a proven ability to solve real pain points in the payments ecosystem, particularly those related to cross-border payments, foreign exchange, and treasury.

KPMG expects to see growing interest in agentic commerce and AI-driven payments in H2, as well as continued focus on embedded payments and finance.