bunq

bunq was founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Ali Niknam (1981) after he secured the first European banking permit in over 35 years. He set out to radically change the traditional banking industry and was bunq’s sole investor until 2021, financing the company with €98.7m of his own money. This provided bunq with the freedom and independence to build a bank rooted in the wants and needs of its users. In April 2021, their deposits surpassed €1 billion for the first time, having doubled in 2019 and then again in 2020.

In July 2021 bunq announced the largest series A round ever secured by a European fintech. bunq raised €193 million in a deal with British private equity firm Pollen Street Capital, valuing bunq at approximately €1.6 billion. At the same time, bunq also reported its first-ever profitable month. The first investment of external capital will help bunq to further expand across Europe and to continue incorporating M&A as part of its business growth strategy. As part of the deal, bunq acquired Capitalflow, a Dublin-based company which lends to SMEs across a broad range of sectors in the Irish economy. In May 2022 bunq welcomed 5.4 million new users to its community with the acquisition of Belgian fintech TriCount, a move that made bunq the EU’s second largest neobank.

bunq is founding supporter of Next Level.

About Ali Niknam

Ali Niknam (1981) is a born entrepreneur: he taught himself coding at 9, invested in stocks at 12 and started his first company at 16. He founded what would become the world’s third largest domain name and web hosting provider (TransIP/team.blue) at 21, co-founded the biggest independent data center company in the Netherlands (the Datacenter Group) at 26, wrote a best-selling book on entrepreneurship the same year he founded one of Europe’s first neobanks at 31 and, before the age of 40, had completely revamped Europe’s banking industry.

Born in Canada, raised in Iran and the Netherlands, Ali is a veritable world citizen who looks at problems on a global scale and provides solutions that transcend borders. The combination of his can do-ideology, fueled by his education at Delft University, has made him one of today’s most influential advocates of technology and innovation.

In 2012 he embarked on his most audacious mission so far, as he set out to radically change the traditional banking industry by founding bunq. In 2015, bunq obtained a European banking license, the first to do so in over 35 years - an achievement many considered impossible. Using the power of innovation, bunq became the second largest neobank in Europe.

With an international background and the innate drive to fix things that are broken, it’s no surprise that Ali can’t turn a blind eye to humanitarian crises. In 2022, as a response to the Russia-Ukraine war, he founded the People for People foundation, a solution designed by entrepreneurs to provide aid to those affected.