Fintech funding in Australia is experiencing a significant rebound this year, soaring 137% in fiscal year (FY) 2026, according to a report by Triple Bubble, a domestic venture capital (VC) firm, and Cut Through Venture, a platform specializing in VC data, insights and analysis.

Between July 01, 2025 and June 30, 2026, Australia fintech startups collectively raised AUD 1.73 billion, a substantial jump from AUD 730 million in FY2025. Notably, the top ten largest deals represented 91% of the FY2026 sum, with the top three alone accounting for 62%. At the same time, the number of fintech deals saw a decline, dropping to 53 rounds and marking the lowest annual total across the seven-year dataset.

These findings suggest a more selective market where substantial capital remains available but is being deployed across fewer companies. In particular, Airwallex, a fintech platform catering to businesses, secured the two largest fintech deals of FY2026, totaling AUD 958 million.

These rounds included a AUD 498 million Series G raised in December 2025 to fuel its expansion in the US and key global markets, while simultaneously driving increased AI hiring and product development initiatives.  Airwallex also established a second global headquarters in San Francisco where it plans to deploy more than US$1 billion from 2026-2029 to scale its US operations, attract top talent, and expand its physical and brand footprint.

The second round, a AUD 460 million Series H, was secured in June 2026 to accelerate product development across autonomous finance and agentic commerce, expand its infrastructure and regulatory footprint into new markets, and continue scaling the teams building its next generation artificial intelligence (AI) native financial software. Airwallex also announced two new product initiatives supporting autonomous finance and agentic commerce: T:0, an AI-native financial platform designed to run the full finance function of a business end-to-end, including bookkeeping, forecasting, taxes, compliance, and reporting; and Airi, an agentic consumer wallet intended to support delegated agent payments, spend limits, permission controls, and multi-currency balances.

Founded in 2015 in Melbourne, Airwallex is a fintech platform designed to help businesses manage international payments, multi-currency accounts, and expenses. It serves more than 676,000 businesses worldwide, and has an annualized revenue of US$1.3 billion (AUD 1.81 billion). The company is valued at US$11 billion (AUD 15.34 billion).

Sectoral trends

The Triple Bubble and Cut Through Venture report also highlights several sectoral trends that marked FY2026. In particular, banking and business-to-business (B2B) financial infrastructure dominated in capital raised, despite recording only four deals. The vertical secured a total of AUD 1.1 billion through deals that included Kast, a stablecoin-powered financial platform which secured a AUD 113 million Series A in May, and Macropod, a licensed stablecoin issuer which raised about AUD 10 million in March 2026, the Australian Financial Review reported.

Wealth and investment came in second by capital raised, and first in terms of the number of deals. The category secured a total of AUD 305.7 million through 10 deals in FY2026 with deals that included HabitTrade, a brokerage firm providing services across trading infrastructure, settlement, custody, and asset issuance which secured a AUD 10 million Series A in January 2026, and Coinstash, a cryptocurrency exchange which raised a AUD 4.7 million Series A in July 2025.

Payments and acceptance also recorded significant deal activity, raising a total of AUD 170.2 million through six deals. Transactions included Ordermentum, an AI-powered operating system for hospitality which raised AUD 55 million in May, and SecurePII, a compliance and data privacy startup which secured AUD 5 million in Seed funding in October 2025.

This ranking points to a preference for infrastructure and transaction-based models that enable financial activity. It also shows a shift from consumer-facing fintech startups, and businesses that directly take on financial risk.

AI adoption accelerates

Another trend emphasized in the report is the accelerated adoption of AI. In FY2026, the proportion of companies classified as AI-first surged to 23%, marking a substantial increase from 6% in FY2025. AI-first companies have a core product that cannot exist without AI as its primary mechanism, with the technology driving the fundamental output or function, whether it’s extraction, generation, prediction, classification, or autonomous action.

Similarly, the proportion of AI-enabled fintech companies rose from 28% in FY2025 to 30% in FY2026. For these companies, AI is meaningfully embedded in an otherwise viable product, enhancing or accelerating the core workflow. However, the product could exist or could have existed without AI.

Looking at deal activity, data indicate that AI is becoming an integral part of the fintech landscape, particularly at the early stage. Across FY2025 and FY2026, AI companies represented 47% of early-stage fintech deals and 31% of later-stage deals, indicating a substantial pipeline of emerging AI-driven fintech startups.

A top startup category

Since FY2020, Australian fintech startups have raised more than AUD 12 billion through 564 announced transactions. They secured 31% of all disclosed startup funding, underscoring the significance of the sector in the country’s startup ecosystem.

Beyond funding, fintech is also Australia’s leading unicorn category, minting a total of nine billion-dollar startups to date. These fintech companies collectively represent 20% of Australia’s unicorns and include some of the country’s most iconic technology companies, including Afterpay, Airwallex, Zeller, and Zip.

This ecosystem now comprises 800 fintech companies across various verticals, according to new research conducted by Fintech News Australia. Payment leads the market, accounting for 20.8% of all active fintech companies in Australia with 168 ventures. Lending follows, accounting for 17.75% of all active fintech companies with 142 ventures, while financial infrastructure ranks third, holding a 11.25% share with 9 companies.

The Australia Fintech Map 2026, released in August 2026, reveals that homegrown companies constitute the overwhelming majority of active fintech companies in Australia, accounting for a staggering 96% of the total with 768 companies. This suggests that the domestic market has a strong capacity for local financial innovation and entrepreneurship, revealing a locally driven fintech ecosystem with strong market-specific knowledge and potential for sustainable growth.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Australia, based on image by magnific via Magnific