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N26-Green Valentin Stalf
Photo: Wolfgang Kumm / picture alliance / dpa
The Berlin smartphone bank N26 has raised more than 900 million dollars from investors and with this financing round has become the most valuable FinTech in Germany.
The valuation of the start-up is now over nine billion dollars, the company said.
The income is around ten percent above the values that were circulating a week ago and that SPIEGEL had reported on.
After the fifth round of financing, N26 is now the second most valuable German start-up.
Only the software company Celonis is more valuable, valued by investors at over ten billion dollars.
"With the investors we got on board, we are also taking an important step towards going public in the coming years," said N26 founder Valentin Stalf.
In the context of the new financing round, however, N26 also has to live with a restriction for a limited period of time.
Stalf announced that the banking supervisory authority Bafin would issue an order in the near future, whereby the growth of N26 over the next few months in Europe would be limited to “a maximum of 50,000 to 70,000 new customers per month”.
N26 does not communicate current customer numbers.
Industry observers assume, however, that N26 has gained around 100,000 new customers per month in the past few months.
At the end of September it became known that the smartphone bank had paid a fine of 4.25 million euros to the Bafin because reports of suspected money laundering had been submitted late to the banking supervisory authority.
Investors who have been involved in N26 so far include the insurance company Allianz, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, the Chinese internet giant Tencent, Earlybird and the US investor Peter Thiel.
N26 wants to use the money to expand further and is focusing on continental Europe.
The aim is to win customers in Poland and Romania.
A smaller test run is also planned in Brazil.
N26 will also use the funds to further expand its digital banking app and expand its global teams.
In the coming years, the company plans to hire another 1,000 people worldwide, primarily in the areas of technology, product management and digital security, it said.
N26 currently employs around 1500 people.
ssu / dpa