The company, which offers digital retail banking services and on-demand electronics, travel and phone insurance, could join European fintechs including Revolut Ltd. and Wise Plc that have commanded multibillion-dollar values in recent transactions.
Others including Nutmeg and Tink AB have attracted takeover interest from global finance giants on the hunt for new sources of growth. However, many fintechs face the same issues as traditional banks in generating returns from customer deposits.
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Britain’s Revolut also raised $800m (€677m) from investors at a $33bn valuation, the latest sign of investor demand for fintech payment apps.
In Revolut’s case, it said the new money will be used to fund its expansion into the US and India.
The funding makes Revolut the UK’s most valuable startup, surpassing Checkout.com’s $15bn mark.
It is also makes it more valuable than NatWest, which owns Ulster Bank, which currently has a market value of $32.7bn.
Revolut has about 15m personal customers and 500,000 businesses using its products. Such valuation spikes have become a common theme in fintechs.
Swedish startup Klarna Bank, which lets online customers pay for their shopping in installments, raised cash at a $45.6bn valuation in June.
Money-transfer company Wise carried out a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange this month, more than doubling its value in about a year.
In the case of N26’s fundraising, where investors include billionaires Peter Thiel and Li Ka-Shing, this could be the final time it raises cash before an initial public offering. N26 reported net losses of €110m.
Founded in 2013, it said in January it had 7m customers in the US and Europe.
It has faced regulatory headwinds including in Germany and in the UK, where it blamed Brexit complications when it withdrew from the market last year.
Source: Irish Examiner
