N26, a Germany-based digital bank which counts internet group Tencent and insurance provider Allianz as backers, closed a series E round sized at over $900m, reportedly at a post-money valuation of more than $9bn. Third Point Ventures, the venture Capital arm of investment adviser Third Point, led the round and was joined by Coatue Management, Dragoneer Investment Group and unnamed existing investors.
Founded in 2013, N26 run a digital bank via an app, which offers fee-free card payments around the globe and push notifications for transactions. The bank is currently on track to process $90bn in transaction volume for 2021 and is planning to hire 1,000 more employees.
The sizeable round raised by N26 is part of an upward trend in valuations that we have been observing within the broader fintech space since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. The company itself is part of the personal finance and wealth management subfield of fintech, which has enjoyed much attention from corporate investors, as shown on the GCV Analytics bar chart below. Even though the number of corporate-backed rounds in this realm has been somewhat erratic over the years, we can clearly see the spike in valuations implied by the 220% increase of the estimated total dollars by the end of September this year ($3.99bn) over the total for the entire 2020 ($1.24bn).
