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 contemporary funding, in keeping with KPMG Canada’s Pulse of Fintech report.
Whereas fintech funding slowed globally, Canadian buyers maintained regular assist for ventures on the intersection of finance and rising expertise. 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,” mentioned Edith Hitt, a associate at KPMG Canada.
AI investments aren’t shocking, given its monumental enlargement in recent times. Nevertheless, Canadian buyers turning to digital property funding would possibly catch some off guard, as the chance 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 components 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 instances,” Hitt added.
Cautious buyers
Whereas the $1.6 billion quantity could seem huge, zooming out, the numbers have truly dropped year-over-year as a consequence of macro occasions corresponding to tariffs and better rates of interest. The report mentioned the primary half of 2025 knowledge is decrease than $2.4 billion invested within the Canadian fintech trade in the identical time interval final 12 months, and $7.5 billion invested within the second half of 2024.
This doesn’t suggest buyers are shying away from fintech funding; slightly, there’s numerous ‘dry powder’ ready to be deployed, mentioned 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.
‘Robust’ second half
In truth, 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 robust 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, mentioned Hitt.
“The main focus might be on infrastructure, funds rails, and tokenization platforms that may scale in compliant, built-in methods,” she added.
Hitt mentioned issues will solely warmth up extra on the AI aspect, “as extra fintechs more and more undertake and deploy agentic AI options throughout areas like private finance, funding administration, fraud detection and lending.”
