CEO and founder Ali Niknam. Image: Bunq
With its eyes set on a the US, Bunq surpassed €100m raised in what CEO Ali Niknam calls a ‘magical year’.
Amsterdam-headquartered neobank Bunq has just raised €44.5m in its latest funding round, bringing total investment raised this year to more than €100m.
Bunq said in an announcement today (24 July) that the fresh capital will allow the digital bank to further accelerate its international expansion and continue its rapid growth.
“It’s been a truly magical year for Bunq. We’re rapidly expanding and have seen massive deposit growth,” CEO and founder Ali Niknam said.
The latest investment was backed by Niknam himself, along with London-based private equity firm Pollen Street Capital and Raymond Kasiman, chief information officer at Bunq. This brings its valuation to around €1.65bn, despite ongoing economic headwinds in the market.
“With more and more people entrusting their money to us, we’re convinced that we should double down on our momentum and cement the way forward for future growth,” Niknam added.
Founded in 2012, Bunq expanded across the EU market in 2019. It soared to unicorn status in 2021 after raising €193m, the largest Series A round for a European fintech at the time. As part of that deal, the neobank snapped up Ireland’s Capitalflow from Pollen Street Capital for €141m.
Bunq has been available in Ireland for years, but expanded its services here in 2022 with the launch of Irish international bank account numbers. In December 2022, Bunq said it became “structurally profitable” and reported its first quarterly profit of €2.3m.
The challenger bank said in April that it had applied for a US banking license with plans to offer its services in 50 US states. The aim is to target a market of roughly 5m “digital nomads” – including European expats, international entrepreneurs, remote workers and people who have deep ties “on both sides of the Atlantic”.
“Throughout Bunq’s history, we’ve always focused on making life easy for digital nomads in Europe,” Niknam said at the time. “We can’t wait to bring our user-centred philosophy stateside, giving a community of location-independent people an effortless way to bank on the go.”
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