Tencent And Allianz Invest $160M Into Mobile Banking Startup

As it builds a retail bank from the ground up, N26 has notched $160 million in a Series C funding round led by Allianz and Tencent. For the round, Allianz invested through its Allianz X investment arm, TechCrunch reported.

“I think Tencent and Allianz are a great combination of investors,” N26 co-founder and CEO Valentin Stalf told TechCrunch. “In the last 10 years, Tencent became one of the five most valuable companies in the world – it’s a pioneer in mobile payment and also FinTech in general.”

In total, the company has raised more than $200 million in funding. With the new infusion, N26 is planning more partnerships and expansions. It also plans to add more new features and engineers. Already, the company has brought in 850,000 customers, and hopes to reach over 5 million by 2020.

N26 originally launched in 2013 in Germany without a banking license under the name Number26, operating as a financial interface. Later that year, the company acquired a banking license and began offering more traditional financial services throughout the European Union (EU).

In December 2017, after adding more than 500,000 customers in Germany and 16 other countries throughout the EU, the company had set its sights on expanding into new markets as well as opening for business in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

N26 operates in a growing marketplace with a handful of companies launching app-only banking or banking-like services. Most of them are competing for the business of millennials who are used to conducting all sorts of transactions from their mobile devices.

The company has said that 59 percent of its customers are between ages 18 and 34. Like some of the other apps, N26 is designed to enable consumers to handle all of their financial aspects from their mobile phones.

Some of the other competitors in Europe include Monzo of the U.K., which intends to act as the financial control center for customers, and Revolut, which started out as a money exchange card but is now branching out into all aspects of personal finances.