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 the EU. Serving digital nomads across the European Economic Area, 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 2025, bunq announced it’s fast-tracking its entry in the US by applying for a broker-dealer license and planning to reapply for the full banking license later the same year.
Our People
Ali Niknam, Founder & CEO at bunq
Ali managed to get the first European banking permit in over 35 years and, as its sole investor, invested around €150M in bunq. In a deal with British private equity firm Pollen Street Capital, bunq has raised €193 million and the company’s valuation soared to €1.6 billion, as of July 2021. As part of the deal, bunq acquired Capitalflow Group, a privately held Irish lending company with strong ties to the Irish community. In 2022, bunq acquired Belgian fintech tricount, a move that made bunq the second largest neobank in Europe.
Bianca Zwart, Chief Strategy Officer at bunq
As Chief Strategy Officer at bunq, Bianca drives the company’s user-centric mission forward. By deeply understanding the wants and needs of bunq’s users, Bianca shapes the company’s long-term strategy and removes roadblocks on bunq’s path to becoming the world’s first global bank people love to use. In this role, Bianca is in charge of bunq’s PR and communications teams that shape bunq’s public image and spread the word about bunq’s story with millions of bunq’s current and potential users. Moreover, as the company’s chief strategist, Bianca steers the team at the heart of everything bunq does: user operations.
After joining bunq as a frontline support guide in 2016, Bianca’s return to operations is a full circle. Having quickly grown to team leader in user support and Head of PR & Communications, Bianca left bunq to pursue her own entrepreneurial ventures. In 2018-2021, Bianca founded and scaled Black & White Communications, a PR agency working with fast-growing European companies and their inspiring founders, and Pioneer Academy, an educational, subscription-based platform that enables early-stage startup founders to build their own in-house PR-machine. After a successful exit, Bianca rejoined bunq as the company’s first Chief of Staff in 2022 where, involved in all facets of the business, she served as the co-pilot to bunq’s founder and CEO, Ali Niknam, and focused on removing operational obstacles that stood in the way of bunq’s mission.
A global citizen herself, Bianca lives an international lifestyle, experiencing firsthand the challenges and opportunities faced by bunq’s location-independent users around the world. This unique perspective helps her keep the company’s focus on what matters most: bunq’s users.
Ali el Hassouni, Data and AI Evangelist at bunq
Over nearly a decade at bunq, Ali built and led the challenger’s Data & AI team, shaping its evolution into Europe’s first AI-powered neobank. From engineering an AI-powered transaction monitoring system that’s 2.5 times more effective than traditional methods to integrating generative AI across user support, marketing, or app testing, Ali’s team made sure bunq is at the forefront of using AI to make our users’ lives easy. Now, he’s supporting critical functions and brings strategic insight into how data and AI can both improve bunq’s product and ensure its users’ safety.
Brian Spaans, Head of Finance at bunq
As Head of Finance, Brian balances bunq’s profitability with user happiness while he oversees accounting, FP&A, Regulatory Reporting and Treasury functions at bunq.
Throughout his time at bunq, Brian assembled a highly-skilled Finance and Treasury team that contributed to the neobank’s sustainable growth and execution of bunq’s ambitious M&A strategy. Moreover, Brian pioneered bunq’s world-class annual ESG report and helped bunq gain 10% of the insured mortgages market in the Netherlands in just 6 months since launch of bunq’s Easy Mortgages.
Kris Wulteputte, Chief Risk Officer at bunq
As Chief Risk Officer at bunq, Kris builds and scales bunq's global risk and compliance functions, leading its regulatory expansion. To him, challenges are opportunities, and the future is digital-first, AI-driven, and all about effortless user experiences.
With a background in engineering, Kris spent decades turning risk into opportunity - starting on Wall Street, co-founding RiskMetrics, and leading risk and treasury teams at local banks and a SIFI. After stepping away from a regional CRO role to study AI, he found his way to bunq. Seeing how bunq was built by engineers, embracing innovation and responsible AI, he knew he belonged.
A global citizen at heart, Kris has lived and worked in multiple countries, experiencing firsthand the challenges of navigating global banking. This deep understanding of cross-border finance drives his passion for making banking seamless, secure, and accessible for all bunq users everywhere.
Samantha de Groen, Director of Product Marketing at bunq
Raised in Miami and having earned higher education degrees from institutions in the US and the Netherlands, Samantha de Groen is taking care of delivering products that make life easy and showing the world how they respond to users’ wants and needs.
Throughout her time at bunq, Samantha built the company’s CRM Marketing and Product Marketing tools from the ground up and launched bunq’s Easy Green, the neobank’s flagship subscription plan that empowers users to offset their carbon footprint just by using bunq.
Passionate about bunq’s users, Samantha works closely with Data & Research, Product Development, and multiple marketing teams to tell bunq’s story across different channels. She also sees to it bunq’s product is tailored to the needs of its users across different markets. To that end, Samantha is responsible for validating and testing the neobank’s product offerings and messaging in new markets in support of bunq’s ambitious international expansion strategy.
Thijs de Maa, Engineering Lead – Special Projects at bunq
Born and raised in the Netherlands, Thijs taught himself coding at the age of 10, simply to start building websites. In 2018, Thijs joined bunq as a backend engineer, kickstarting his contributions to the future of the fintech sector. At bunq, Thijs built and developed one of the best Frontend and QA teams in European fintech, able to ship groundbreaking features in record time. Now, he’s focused on bringing bunq’s most ambitious projects to life, such as launching promotions or fully integrating new payment methods at breakneck speed.
Tom Bilske, Head of New Products at bunq
Tom’s mission is simple: build products that solve real problems for real people. With a background in computer science and psychology, he brings a human lens to everything he designs - fast, simple, and intuitive. Whether it’s making investing as easy as splitting a bill or managing money on the go, he believes that if it takes more than three taps, it’s not done right.
Tom joined bunq in 2018 and was hooked from the start - spotting a bug during his first day, fixing it, and shipping the update that same afternoon. After a brief stint away exploring other roles, he returned to bunq for one reason: momentum. A user-first approach means fast decisions, no red tape, and problems get solved - not shelved.
A frequent traveler himself, many of bunq’s features reflect his own experiences, shaped by moments on the road where he thought, “This should be easier.” In his role as Head of New Products, he focuses on building features that empower bunq users to bank (and live) seamlessly, wherever life takes them.