Canadian fintech firms raised $1.62 billion within the first half of 2025, with digital property and synthetic intelligence (AI) startups taking the lion’s share of recent funding, based on KPMG Canada’s Pulse of Fintech report.
Whereas fintech funding slowed globally, Canadian buyers maintained regular help for ventures on the intersection of finance and rising know-how. The report singled out firms constructing blockchain-based infrastructure and AI-driven monetary instruments as main development areas.
“If we take a look at the primary half of 2025, it is clear that digital property have re-emerged as a magnet for investor curiosity, regardless of the broader contraction in enterprise funding values,” stated Edith Hitt, a associate at KPMG Canada.
AI investments aren’t stunning, given its monumental growth in recent times. Nevertheless, Canadian buyers turning to digital property funding would possibly catch some off guard, as the danger issue of the crypto market has all the time been up for debate amongst buyers.
Nevertheless, with extra pro-crypto laws within the U.S. and additional institutional push legitimizing sure elements of the digital property sector, the dialog has clearly began to shift.
“Crypto’s resurgence popping out of 2024 was bolstered by a extra constructive regulatory tone within the U.S., the dismissal of the Coinbase lawsuit, and tangible mainstream adoption in stablecoin use circumstances,” Hitt added.
Cautious buyers
Whereas the $1.6 billion quantity could appear large, zooming out, the numbers have truly dropped year-over-year attributable to macro occasions reminiscent of tariffs and better rates of interest. The report stated the primary half of 2025 information is decrease than $2.4 billion invested within the Canadian fintech business in the identical time interval final 12 months, and $7.5 billion invested within the second half of 2024.
This does not imply buyers are shying away from fintech funding; relatively, there may be a whole lot of ‘dry powder’ ready to be deployed, stated Dubie Cunningham, a Accomplice in KPMG in Canada’s Banking and Capital Markets Observe. Traders are in search of extra “high quality firms” and urge for food for “maturing mid-to-large stage personal fairness offers,” she added.
‘Sturdy’ second half
In actual fact, KPMG Canada’s report defined that this pattern of investing in AI and digital property is prone to proceed into the latter half of 2025.
“Investor curiosity in digital will stay sturdy within the second half of the 12 months and into 2026, pushed by the U.S. administration’s bullish view and lighter regulatory contact on cryptoassets, stated Hitt.
“The main target can be on infrastructure, funds rails, and tokenization platforms that may scale in compliant, built-in methods,” she added.
Hitt stated issues will solely warmth up extra on the AI facet, “as extra fintechs more and more undertake and deploy agentic AI options throughout areas like private finance, funding administration, fraud detection and lending.”
