Consulting company Accenture published a report on Thursday indicating that investment in Singaporean financial technology companies totalled close to half a billion dollars in the first half of this year.

According to the report, investors pumped $453 million into fintech firms operating in the small, Southeast Asian city-state during the first six months of the year. That was nearly a four-fold increase on the same period in 2018.

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Approximately 28 percent of the money raised went into insurance technology companies. Another 27 percent was in payments and 25 percent of the $453 million, around $113 million, was invested in lending firms.

A sizeable proportion of that cash was raised by a small number of firms. Cloud technology company Deskera, for instance, raised $100 million in May and, in the same month, insurance technology provider GoBear saw investment of $80 million.

The figures presented in Accenture’s report mean that Singapore is now the third-largest hub for financial technology – at least in terms of funds raised – in the Asia-Pacific region. Only China and India, with more than a billion people each, have seen more investment.

“The increase both in deal value and the number of deals is a good indicator of what’s to come, and bodes well for the future development of cutting-edge financial technology in Singapore,” said Divyesh Vithlani, a managing director at Accenture.

“There’s a lot brewing in the Singapore fintech ecosystem, and this steady flow of funds shows investors’ confidence in the industry’s future growth potential. The forthcoming virtual banking licenses will help create more opportunities for fintech start-ups and traditional banks to partner and cooperate, and should add another wave of investments in the sector.”