Annual fintech funding fell 15 per cent to US$34.5 billion over the year to December 2019 across 1,913 deals, a study by CB Insights found. However, 2018 funding figures were inflated by Ant Financial's record US$14B, they point out. "Removing this round [from 2018 figures] would make 2019 a record funding year,"  the US-based research house said.Nearly 50 per cent of 2019 funding was concentrated in 83 mega-rounds (US$100 million plus) totalling US$17.2 billion, CB said, adding "2019 was a record year for mega-rounds in every market except Europe. Fintech startups are maturing beyond early stages and raising private funding over going public."There are 67 VC-backed fintech unicorns worth a combined value of US$245 billion, CB said."2019 saw a record of 24 unicorn births, eight of which occurred in late 2019.These were: Next Insurance, Ebanx, Riskified, Rapyd, Wefox Group, Ripple, Bright Health, and Figure). In the last two months HighRadius, Pine Labs, and Flywire widened the list.Airwallex and Judo are the only Australian fintechs to rate a minor mention in the CB Insights study.