N26
N26 Bank SE, doing business as N26, and formerly named Papayer GmbH, and Number26 GmbH, is a multinational German fintech and neobank company based in Berlin that offers a variety of financial services to individuals and businesses. N26 was founded in 2013 by Rocket Internet, an incubator, and operates in various European Union member states that are members of the Single Euro Payments Area. Their services include transaction accounts and debit cards, as well as overdraft and investment products under a subscription business model.
The name of the company is derived from the number of smaller cubes in a complete Rubik's Cube, since a 3x3x3 cube has 26 individual visible cubes.
History
Founded in August 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal as a fintech startup under the name Papayer GmbH, N26 initially offered a prepaid Mastercard financial management solution aimed at teenagers, which was launched in February 2014. During an interview with Business Insider later that year, the founders said that their service represented a niche market after receiving many inquiries regarding the availability of a similar service for adults. Subsequently, after securing €2 million in seed funding during June 2014, they changed their name to Number26 and discontinued the teenage finance service to work on a broader transaction account service for general use.N26 launched their banking product on October 20, 2014, in a private beta. Shortly after launch, they received €10 million in a Series A round, at which point the service has been available in Germany and Austria. During their initial operations, N26 did not hold a banking license; instead, it provided an interface to a backend provided by Wirecard. In July 2016, it re-branded as N26 Bank, after receiving a banking license they applied for 9 months prior by the German regulator BaFin. The company stated that they will start operating on their own infrastructure in autumn that year. At this point, they had over 200,000 customers.
In June 2016, N26 terminated a number of customer accounts. The company said that reasons for these closures included suspected money laundering and excessive ATM withdrawals, with some customers making 15 to 30 withdrawals per month. N26 explained that while it offered free withdrawals, it incurred a cost of up to €2 per withdrawal in Germany, and that the volume of withdrawals by some users created a financial burden that could not be sustained across its customer base. The same month, N26 raised $40 million in a Series B round.
When N26 started asking customers to transfer their accounts to the bank's own infrastructure in November 2016, customers had to get a new account IBAN. Accounts previously held by Wirecard would be terminated. However, many customers reported issues during account migration, with many issues to get in touch with their customer support. N26 apologized and was transparent about what happened, saying they were overwhelmed by a large amount of customer support queries, even after initial preparation. However, they did not comment on other reported issues such as funds going missing and other software bugs.
N26 made transaction accounts available across 17 Eurozone countries in December 2016. Shortly after, N26 reached more than 300,000 users in March 2017, at which point they were processing over 10 million credit card transactions per year, with a transaction volume of over €3 billion.
Following this, N26 raised $160 million during a Series C round led by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings and Allianz X in March 2018. During this time, N26 claimed to have a customer base of 850,000, aiming to have 5,000,000 customers by 2020. This was followed by an additional $300 million in funding in January 2019 as part of a Series D round led by Insight Partners with Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and a few existing investors also participating, putting N26 at a valuation of $2.7 billion. With its new valuation, N26 overtook Revolut as the most valuable mobile bank in Europe.
N26 started letting customers from the United States sign up for a waiting list on July 11, 2019. Due to the differences between EU and the US market, particularly in regards to regulatory schemes for financial providers, N26 partnered with Axos Financial to serve as the provider of its services, insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Unlike in Europe, where they are provided by MasterCard, N26 used Visa cards for U.S. customers. The following week, the company extended its series D round with an additional $170 million investment, valuing the company at $3.5 billion. In May 2020, the company announced the extension of its recent Series D round with an additional $100M raised at the same valuation.
On 11 February 2020, N26 announced that it would cease doing business in the United Kingdom and close all accounts effective 15 April, due to the UK withdrawal from the European Union. The company cited the fact that European financial institutions can no longer operate in the region without applying for a banking license in the UK, as well as "the timings and framework outlined in the EU Withdrawal Agreement".
Following internal conflicts between employees and the N26 management, the workers of N26's Berlin subsidiaries, N26 GmbH and N26 Operations GmbH, elected works councils to represent the employees of the Berlin offices in November and December 2020. The elections saw approximately 30% voter turnout, resulting in eleven elected works council members. These elections followed attempts to establish a works council in summer 2020, which were reportedly met with resistance from N26 management, including legal actions such as interim injunctions attempting to prevent employee meetings and the establishment of the electoral committee.
In January 2021 N26 announced the upcoming appointment of former ProSiebenSat.1 Media and Zalando executive Jan Kemper as the company's Chief Financial Officer. In January 2022, the bank announced that Kemper will also be taking over the role of Chief Operating Officer in addition to his role as CFO.
In October 2021 N26 raised $900 million in a Series E round led by Third Point Ventures and Coatue Management, and joined by Dragoneer Investment Group as well as existing N26 investors. The funding round valued the digital bank at $9 billion.
In November 2021 N26 announced that it would be pulling out of the United States in January 2022, leading to the closure of approximately 500,000 accounts. American customers were no longer be able to use its app after January 11, 2022. The withdrawal was to focus on N26's core European business. The company confirmed this in an official press release and N26's official corporate blog.
In November 2022 N26 changed its legal form from a German Limited Liability Company to a German Stock Corporation. At the same time, a five-member board of directors was appointed, chaired by Marcus W. Mosen. Other members are Jörg Gerbig, Dr. Barbara Roth, Dr. Julian Deutz and Dr. Robert Killian.
In the first half of 2024, N26 partners with Upvest, an investment API provider, to launch a stock and ETF trading product. This product will initially debut in Austria before expanding to the German market.
In April 2025, N26 got featured in the Forbes World's Best Bank list in Germany. Later in August 2025, co-founder and co-chief executive officer Valentin Stalf stepped down from his role as co-CEO due to conflicts with investors concerned with further sanctions from BaFin.
On 15 December 2025, based on a 2024 audit, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority assigned a supervisor for N26 and put several restrictions on the business: N26 is banned from offering new mortgage loans in the Netherlands and has to increase its financial reserves. Mike Dargan is designated to become new CEO in April 2026, replacing Mosen and Tayenthal.
Company
According to N26 it employs more than 1,500 people at its locations in Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Belgrade, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Vienna, New York, Greece and São Paulo.In 2025, N26 announced the departure of its co-founders from executive management. Valentin Stalf stepped down as co-chief executive in August, while Maximilian Tayenthal is expected to leave his role by the end of the year. Andreas Dombret, a former Deutsche Bundesbank executive board member, has been nominated as chair of the supervisory board, pending regulatory approval. Marcus Mosen, the current chair, will assume the position of co-chief executive.
As of August 2025, Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal together retained ownership of roughly one-fifth of N26's equity.
Product overview
N26 provides a free basic current account and a Debit MasterCard card to all its customers, as well as a Maestro card for their customers in certain markets. Additionally, customers can request overdraft and investment products. N26 also offers premium accounts which offer additional features for a monthly fee.The account opening process can be completed online via a photo/video identification. The video identification is performed by N26's identity verification partner, IDnow. The available verification method depends on the nationality, the country of residence, and the type of ID of the customer.
Availability
N26 offers its services in 24 European countries. In Austria, Germany and the Netherlands customers can additionally request a Maestro card.N26 closed its business in April 2020 in the UK. In November 2021, they also announced that they would pull out of the American market from January 2022 closing all 500,000 accounts there.
Some parts of the website and customer service are provided in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish regardless of the customer's residency.