Venture capital investing in Fintech start-ups

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the development in recent years of venture capital investment activity in Fintech start-ups around the world. Since venture capital played a major role in the evolution of the Fintech industry, this work aims to highlight where investments take place and what Fintech’s categories are the most impacted. After an accurate theoretical explanation about what venture capital is and a description of the most relevant characteristics and technologies of Fintech, an accurate review about the growing literature on Fintech venture capital will follow. Considering the explosion of the Fintech market that took place after the recent financial crisis, the areas of greater VC activity and the categories of Fintech start-ups that have been most successful in terms of funds received will be pointed out, together with relevant trends in continents and countries. In order to carry out an exhaustive analysis about the evolution of the reference market, it has been used the Crunchbase database which contains detailed information on Fintech start-up formations and their financing as it is filled by more than 200,000 company contributors and 2000 venture partners.