- bunq reports its first-ever profitable month. The company expects to break even on a monthly basis before the end of 2021.
- Additionally, the European challenger bank raises €193 million, as the company’s valuation soars to €1.65 billion, in a deal with British private equity firm Pollen Street Capital.
Amsterdam, July 8th 2021 - In a sector with many struggling to turn a profit, European challenger bank bunq reported today that it has hit it’s first ever profitable month. Being the first company to ever introduce a transparent subscription based business model in the financial sector, bunq’s sustainable growth strategy has paid off. In addition to reaching its break-even point, bunq announced that it has added €193 million at a €1.65 billion valuation. Pollen Street Capital and Ali Niknam, founder and CEO of bunq, joined one of the largest series A rounds ever secured by a European fintech.
The investment round marks a new phase in bunq’s growth journey. The company, founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Ali Niknam who invested €98.7 million of his own capital into bunq, became the only self-funded challenger bank that branched into 30 European markets without a penny of VC funds. This allowed the company to always keep the freedom and independence to build a bank rooted in the wants and needs of its users. The first external capital now raised will enable bunq to incorporate M&A as a business growth strategy: in a bold move bunq acquires Capitalflow Group, a privately held Irish Lending company with deep ties with the Irish community.
“bunq was founded to challenge what banking is and can do. By putting our users first we have created a bank that is super focussed on making life easy in a sustainable way. We’re extremely excited to join forces with Pollen Street Capital to further expand the bank of The Free throughout Europe”, says Ali Niknam, founder and CEO of bunq.
“Combining the SME lending expertise of Capitalflow, the digital execution capability of bunq and the ‘customer above all’ approach of both Capitalflow and bunq creates a really exciting, high growth and self-sustaining platform with a pan-European reach that will mark a new standard in European digital banking.” says James Scott, Partner at Pollen Street Capital.
During the last year, a challenging year for many, bunq has shown great resilience and resistance as it continued its explosive growth. Doubling its user deposits for the third time in a row, the challenger bank passed the €1 billion in user deposits earlier this year.
Pollen Street Capital is an independent alternative investment management company, focused on accelerating the progress of the financial and business services sectors. It was established in 2013 and operates across private equity and credit strategies on behalf of investors including leading pension funds, asset managers, banks, and family offices from around the world. Pollen Street has a team of 75+ professionals with offices in London and New York City.
In financial and business services, technological innovation and changing consumer behaviours are creating opportunities to build specialist businesses that serve well-defined target markets. Pollen Street Capital uses its deep experience to help its partner companies take advantage of these opportunities and build high growth, sustainable businesses that deliver a compelling proposition to their customers within carefully selected markets.
Established in 2016 and led by Ronan Horgan, Capitalflow is Ireland’s fastest growing digital Business specialist lender. Partnering with Irish SMEs and Property Investors, Capitalflow provides flexible finance options through its technology platform to companies looking to grow and scale their business.
About bunq
Founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Ali Niknam, bunq has brought lasting change to the European banking industry. By having its users at the heart of the business and building a product rooted in their wants and needs, bunq quickly scaled to become the second largest neobank in Europe. Serving digital nomads across Europe, bunq makes life easy for location-independent people and businesses starting from the way they manage money: how they spend, save, budget and invest.
Pioneering many things considered impossible, bunq was the first bank to get a European banking permit in over 35 years, raised the largest series A round ever secured by a European fintech (€193 million), and was the first EU neobank to achieve structural profitability at the end of 2022. On its mission to build the first global neobank for digital nomads, in April 2023, bunq announced its bid to enter the US market by applying for a banking license.
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