N26: Series D financing round of 260 million euros

Berlin — Mobile bank N26 announ­ced that it has raised $300 million in its Series D funding round led by New York-based venture capi­tal firm Insight Venture Part­ners. This brings N26’s valua­tion to $2.7 billion. GIC, an invest­ment fund of the state of Singa­pore, is also parti­ci­pa­ting in the round. Accor­ding to N26, this brings its valua­tion to USD 2.7 billion. N26 origi­nally emer­ged from the AS PnP Acce­le­ra­tor program.

The $300 million invest­ment repres­ents the largest private equity finan­cing round for a fintech company in Europe in recent years. To date, N26 has raised more than $500 million from the world’s most estab­lished inves­tors, inclu­ding Tencent, Alli­anz X, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Li Ka-Shing’s Hori­zons Ventures, Early­bird Venture Capi­tal, Redal­pine Ventures, Axel Sprin­ger Plug and Play and Grey­hound Capi­tal.

N26’s goal is to become the first global mobile bank. The company curr­ently opera­tes in 24 markets across Europe and has tripled its custo­mer base in the last 12 months to more than 2.3 million custo­mers. N26 is using the invest­ment for global expan­sion, start­ing with the launch of its app in the U.S. in the first half of 2019. In the coming years, the company aims to reach over 100 million custo­mers worldwide.

Valen­tin Stalf, CEO and co-foun­­der of N26 (photo), says: “Globally, too many people are still using bad digi­tal banking products and paying too high fees. With Insight Venture Part­ners and GIC, we are joined by other renow­ned inves­tors and now more than ever we have the chance to turn around one of the biggest indus­tries with the best inves­tors in the world.”

Harley Miller, Prin­ci­pal at Insight Venture Part­ners, said, “It’s incre­asingly rare these days to see an indus­try this large not yet revo­lu­tio­ni­zed by tech­no­logy. N26 is the clear market leader in mobile banking in Europe; the company is well poised to expand into the U.S. market this year and build one of the leading digi­tal brands globally.”

N26 makes banking flexi­ble and trans­pa­rent. Features such as real-time noti­fi­ca­ti­ons, sub-accounts with savings goals and world­wide fee-free card payments set the product apart. Future product features include, for exam­ple, easy one-click account sharing. N26 will conti­nue to work on the best banking product for digi­tal customers.

Since the launch of its first product in Janu­ary 2015, N26 has acqui­red more than 2.3 million custo­mers in 24 Euro­pean markets and has proces­sed more than EUR 20 billion in tran­sac­tion volume to date. Custo­mers curr­ently hold over 1 billion euros in N26 accounts. www.n26.com.

Advi­sor to Axel Sprin­ger: Vogel Heerma Waitz
Dr. Clemens Waitz of the law firm Vogel Heerma Waitz advi­sed Axel Sprin­ger Plug and Play (AS PnP) on a EUR 260 million finan­cing of N26.

About N26
N26 is the first bank you’ll love. It offers a mobile bank account with no hidden fees. Valen­tin Stalf and Maxi­mi­lian Tayen­thal foun­ded N26 in 2013 and laun­ched their product in Germany and Austria in 2015. N26 has over 2.3 million custo­mers in 24 count­ries with money depo­sits of over 1 billion euros and a monthly tran­sac­tion volume of over 1.5 billion euros. N26 curr­ently has more than 700 employees in Berlin, Barce­lona and New York. With its Euro­pean banking license, bench­­mark-setting tech­no­logy and no expen­sive branch network, N26 is signi­fi­cantly chan­ging 21st century banking and is available for Android, iOS and via the web app. To date, N26 has raised more than $500 million from renow­ned inves­tors, inclu­ding Insight Venture Part­ners, GIC, Tencent, Alli­anz X, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Li Ka-Shing’s Hori­zons Ventures, Early­bird Venture Capi­tal, Grey­hound Capi­tal, Battery Ventures, as well as members of the Zalando board and Redal­pine Ventures. Curr­ently, N26 is active in the follo­wing count­ries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Esto­nia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liech­ten­stein, Lithua­nia, Luxem­bourg, the Nether­lands, Norway, Poland, Portu­gal, Slove­nia, Slova­kia, Spain, Sweden and the United King­dom. In 2019, N26 will also enter the US market. In New York, N26 opera­tes through its wholly owned subsi­diary N26 Inc.

About Insight Venture Partner

Insight Venture Part­ners is a leading global venture capi­tal and private equity firm inves­t­ing in high-growth tech­no­logy and soft­ware compa­nies that are driving change in their indus­tries. Foun­ded in 1995, Insight curr­ently mana­ges over $20 billion in assets and has cumu­la­tively inves­ted in more than 300 compa­nies world­wide. Our mission is to find, fund and successfully part­ner with visio­nary leaders and provide them with prac­ti­cal, hands-on growth skills to drive long-term success. In all our employees and our port­fo­lio, we foster a culture based on one core idea: Growth means oppor­tu­ni­ties. For more infor­ma­tion about Insight and all of its invest­ments, visit www.insightpartners.com or follow us on Twit­ter @insightpartners.

About GIC

GIC is a leading global invest­ment company estab­lished in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign exch­ange reser­ves. As a long-term value inves­tor, GIC is uniquely posi­tio­ned to invest in a broad range of asset clas­ses, inclu­ding equi­ties, fixed income, private equity, real estate and infra­struc­ture. In private equity, GIC invests in compa­nies both through funds and directly, working with fund mana­gers and manage­ment teams to help world-class compa­nies achieve their goals. GIC invests in over 40 count­ries and has been inves­t­ing in emer­ging markets for more than two deca­des. GIC is head­quar­te­red in Singa­pore and employs over 1,500 people in ten offices in the world’s major finan­cial centers. For more infor­ma­tion about GIC, visit www.gic.com.sg.