Fintech investments have increased hugely in average size this year, with 23 percent more funding rounds topping $5 mln.

Research from GlobalData shows smaller rounds dropping off significantly compared to 2016, with 22 percent less activity below $5 mln.

Ameet Phadnis, the firm’s research and analysis director for financial services commented in an accompanying release:

“It is evident from the rise in investments that a lot of new ideas are getting funded in the fintech space, thereby offering a good scope of innovation and disruption.”

Initial rounds have also taken preference over later-stage cash injections among investors, statistics show, with just four percent of funding occurring in multiple rounds.

Fintech has been the talk of the global community, as banks gain more competition for unreachable customers and Blockchain plays a pivotal role in providing alternatives to legacy systems.

The pace of change is apparent throughout the world, GlobalData reveals, with US fintech supremacy quickly giving way to European and Asian markets.

“The other markets are steadily grabbing the share from the US, thereby reducing its dominance from a nearly 60 percent share in 2014 to about 43 percent in 2017,” Phadnis highlighted, with the release describing fintech as being “in good times.”

Earlier this month, CBS Insights included thirteen Blockchain companies in its 250 Startups list of emerging fintech players.