The peak year for global venture capital investments in payments start-ups - itself part of a component of the wider fintech scene - was back in 2014. In 2015, VC fund flows to this sector slumped, and 2016 is shaping up as an equally quiet year for fintech funding.This is borne out in a recent report from Tracxn, a self-described "start-up research platform". Its researchers undertook a global review of the tech start-up world. In the section of the report on "payments start-ups", they found VC investments for all purposes totalled US$31.3 billion in the years from 2009 to 2016. The report covers companies participating in the traditional web based payment process such as payment gateways, payment processors, card networks, digital wallets, PoS terminals and software, etc. The definition excludes mobile payment companies.This report also includes companies trying to circumvent the traditional card-based payment system, like cash payments for online transactions, bitcoin based payment systems, independent payment networks.The scope of this report includes equity as well as debt funding received by the companies.The trickle of flows across 2015 and 2016 may bookmark the fintech era, with US$1.4 billion committed in 2015 and only US$817 million in 2016.Thirty per cent of all VC investments in 2009 to 2016 were for fintech, a US$9.3 billion base on which to erect a superstructure. The collapse in new money over 2015 and 2016 is a red flag for would-be disruptors. The fabulous 2014 for VC backing fintech of payments, along with overall VC flows, is the marker of early hype, intended to seed a cascade of M&A activity and IPOs, each feeding an open mouthed capital market. One New Zealand outfit and a list of Australian names pepper the Tracxn report, which comprises a series of achievers' roll calls in fintech: VendHQ, from Auckland, along with QSI Payments, Touchcorp and Tyro.A recent US$100 million, multi-sourced funding round for Tyro (formerly MoneySwitch, renamed in 2003) earned this Australian ADI its second spot on a podium - highlighted as one of the "Top investments in last year," along with "Most Funded Company".