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Australian fintech shows many signs of a maturing industry
More than half of surveyed firms have successfully raised capital before, nearly half are profitable and most (66%) have crossed the $1m annual revenue milestone.
47%
of surveyed fintechs are profitable
66%
generate >$1m in annual revenue
59%
not actively seeking investment
That growth is also reflected in company valuations.
Higher company valuations correlate to larger amounts of capital raised. 
While there are few unicorns valued above $1bn, their existence is further evidence of the sector’s ability to create significant enterprise value.
These are encouraging signs of maturity and financial stability from surveyed companies, and yet current fundraising activity is subdued. 59% of respondents are not actively pursuing investment, even if a good number would be open to the right offer.
It isn’t surprising that profitable companies, who are more likely to be revenue-funded, are less interested in fundraising.
More intriguing is that 83% of not-yet-profitable fintechs have previously raised capital, much higher than the sector average. Insights gleaned from industry roundtables add important context that may explain this finding.
Simply put, capital-raising is extremely time-intensive, often at the expense of business growth.
In one founder’s experience, being profitable provides “three months a year that I can basically put back into growing the business instead of trying to capital raise.”
Another laments board meetings dominated by “discussions around capital, preserving capital, capital raising rather than what do we need to be doing on the business to make money and be a viable business in the future.”
Capital is available, but the market is more selective
Interestingly, we note that only 9% are actively pursuing their first capital raise.
We heard several industry leaders voice real concern about how difficult it is now for startups to get off the ground, with one saying, “it’s probably the most dampened I’ve ever seen the market.” In fact, most of our roundtable attendees believe capital is hard to come by and say venture funding conditions are significantly tougher than they were a few years ago.
The Fintech Funding Report recently published by Triple Bubble and Cut Through Venture provides important context for why this sentiment persists.
Technically, investment in Australian fintech grew dramatically, from $730m in FY25 to $1.7bn in FY26. So, if funding has increased, why are founders saying, “it’s much harder than ever to raise equity capital”? The problem is that there are fewer recipients. 91% of that funding went to the top 10 deals and there were significantly fewer deals than in previous years. Essentially, there is capital available, but the market has become more selective.
However, there may be other factors causing the lower number of deals in 2026.
Over half didn’t seek capital in the past 12 months, which suggests that it’s not just investors who are being more selective. For those who did seek capital, successful or partial raises were considerably more common than outright failure.
That relatively high success rate may help explain the optimism among fintechs actively pursuing investment. From 36 respondents, more than 80% expect to close a raise within six months, which suggests a potential near-term pipeline of fintech investment activity.
Those seeking investment aren’t shooting for the moon, either.
Most targeted raises sit between $1m and $20m, which is relatively modest, while still indicating meaningful capital requirements.
Overwhelmingly, Australian fintech is funded by its founders.
However, where investors have been sought, we can see from the survey that there is a mix of Australian capital and international capital.
According to Triple Bubble, international investors participated in 55% of fintech deals in FY26, and 93% of all fintech capital raised that year came through rounds that included at least one international investor.
Moving forwards, fintech will need to find the right balance between using the deeper, more diverse pools of international capital to accelerate growth while ensuring long-term value and sovereignty is retained domestically.
The haves and have-nots of fintech
What we see in these survey results is a clear bifurcation among fintechs between those who have achieved profitability and those who are still working towards it.
This bifurcation manifests itself within the top challenges fintechs face.
For those still working towards profitability, raising equity capital and, by extension, achieving profitability remain the top challenges they face, by a significant margin. For FinTech Australia, the challenges are structural and require a systematic approach that creates pathways within the fintech ecosystem towards success.
"How do we get every fintech in this ecosystem to be as profitable as fast as we can, as cash flow positive as fast as we can?"
Government policy is one part of that systematic approach, and the survey results point to exactly where they're needed most.
Government support may prove key to achieving future fintech growth
With private capital harder to access, government incentives are one of the few levers left to keep growth moving.
Research and development tax incentive (RDTI)
As the only government program with wide uptake within fintech, the proposed changes to the RDTI provoke strong sentiments from industry leaders.
Chief among the criticised reforms is the decision to permanently eliminate the category of supporting research and development (R&D) activities from 1 July 2028 and the introduction of a ten-year limit on the refundability of the increased small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) R&D tax offset.
The prevailing view among tax advisers and industry bodies is that the proposed ten-year limit in the Exposure Draft is overly broad and risks creating harmful unintended consequences across the innovation ecosystem. Their concerns centre on the inclusion of connected entities and two-way affiliates that may have no meaningful link to the R&D entity itself, as well as the decision to measure the ten-year period from the commencement of the enterprise rather than the start of R&D activities.
At a time when government is talking about productivity, AI and innovation, many feel the proposed changes send the opposite signal.
One fintech leader describes the proposed changes as "ridiculous," while another calls it "a huge detriment not only to the fintech sector, but to all startups in Australia."
Risk to domestic innovation
Fintech leaders raise several potential consequences to weakening the RDTI. These include:
- Reduced incentive to hire Australian developers
- Increased offshoring
- Less domestic innovation
- Lower attractiveness of Australia as a startup destination.
The case for non-financial support
One founder argues that government support should involve active collaboration and strategic discussion rather than simply providing funding mechanisms.
In their view, the fintech ecosystem requires:
- Commercialisation support
- Investor education
- Industry connections
- Help identifying market opportunities
- Experts who can elevate promising technologies.
Finding the right investor can play an important role here.
Insights shared at Intersekt, the fintech industry's annual conference, reveal that investors increasingly position themselves as strategic partners rather than passive financiers, contributing mentorship, industry networks, customer introductions, help with talent acquisition and support for expansion into new markets.
For founders, that means who is funding a raise can matter as much as how much they're raising.
PERSPECTIVE
Are we using the right measures of success?
For years, the loudest signal of fintech success has been the size of your last capital raise. A big round means a big headline, industry recognition and validation (and possibly envy) from your peers.
But is that really the best measure of success? Several industry leaders think not.
A profitable, self-sustaining fintech is more resilient and delivers more economic value, they argue, than a highly-funded startup.
"We are completely privately owned. We don't have anyone on our cap table. We make money, we're revenue positive. That should be celebrated."
Perhaps it is time to laud the accomplishments of the 27% of survey respondents who are revenue-funded, instead of reserving such praise for the 6% of successful raises who managed to bag over $100m.
47% of fintechs are currently profitable, rising to 62% for those with over $1m revenue. A further 27% expect to be profitable within 12 months. That is certainly something to celebrate.
Chapter takeaway:
Mature fintechs are self-reliant, but newcomers need better support
Australian fintechs increasingly need a mix of founder funding, equity, debt, tax incentives and alternative capital to move from product development to commercial scale. While many established fintechs are profitable, early-stage and scaling businesses remain exposed to gaps in venture funding.
If Australia wants to retain the founders, intellectual property, investment and high-value employment opportunities that fintech provides, we should seek to provide an environment that incentivises innovation and supports new fintechs to achieve the same commercial success that established companies have proved is possible.