Venture capital funding into financial technology slumped in the first quarter, with China taking the worst hit with investment into the sector almost halving from the previous quarter.

Investors initially flocked to Chinese fintech start-ups that promised to revolutionise everything from payments to compliance by deploying blockchain and other technologies. But a regulatory clampdown, triggered in part by concerns of systemic risk in the financial system, has soured sentiment.

According to CB Insights, a research company that tracks venture capital and start-ups, fintech funding globally dipped 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter to $6.3bn in the first three months of the year, although the number of deals inched up to 445. The global figure is just a whisker ahead of the previous year’s $6.2bn.