Revolut exceeds 1m customers in Poland, N26 raises another $100m, and Alpian announces a $12m Series A to launch an elite wealth manager.

Did you know that three neobanks own more than 85% of the US digital bank market share (measured by monthly active users)? However, traditional banks are still attracting new mobile app users at a high rate. “Traditional banks are adding an average of 180% more new mobile app users per month than digital banks are, over the past six months.”

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Now on to the news of the past week!

Revolut exceeds 1m customers in Poland, N26 raises another $100m, and Alpian announces a $12m Series A to launch an elite wealth manager. 

Revolut officially announced that the number of its customers in Poland has exceeded the threshold of 1 million. According to the company's information, Polish clients have spent over PLN 1 billion on the platform it has offered since the beginning of the year, and over PLN 3.5 billion over the past 12 months.

N26 now has a proper funding war chest to face the economic downturn. The Berlin-based startup has extended its Series D round with another $100 million of funding at the same valuation of $3.5 billion. In total, N26 has raised $570 million as part of its Series D round. N26’s Series D seems like a never-ending list of big numbers. In January 2019, the company announced a $300 million Series D at a $2.7 billion valuation.

The world’s richest 1% own trillions in cash, much of which is housed in highly exclusive banks. But the ancient world of private banking is getting a shake-up, with a handful of digital private-members banks on the horizon. Among them is Alpian, which announced a $12m Series A round to help launch an elite wealth manager for Switzerland’s 2.6m “mass affluent”.

Kestrl, an ethical banking FinTech, is set to launch in the UK later this year. The start-up is designed for those who want to spend and invest in line with their personal values. The debit card launch – expected sometime in Q3 following a June beta – will arrive with an app that can budget, calculate monthly net wealth, track carbon emissions through open banking, and allow users to donate through an integrated charity donation platform.

Sweden-based banking challenger Rocker has reportedly chosen Enfuce, as its official card issuing and payment processing partner. The move should streamline processes involving the issuance of Visa prepaid cards. Earlier this year, the Fintech firm began expanding its operations across Europe. The company’s management had said that it would be easier to grow its business if it begins operating as a digital bank.

London-based fintech startup Countingup has raised €4.5m ($4.8m) through a bridge financing round to automate banking and accounting for small businesses. The funding round was led by ING Ventures, with co-investment from Triple Point, CVentures and BiG Start Ventures. The UK-based fintech will use the funds to pace up the banking and accounting roadmap for an easy and efficient way to digitally run a small business.\

German Fintech finleap‘s proprietary platform, finleap connect, has introduced a white-label mobile banking app that businesses can quickly launch with their own company name and branding. Finleap’s virtual banking app allows users to maintain an all-digital account, which may be used to conduct e-commerce transactions and handle payment card management.

The mobile banking app Numbrs is poised to cut 62 of its Zurich-based staff after investors pulled out of an agreement to inject new funds into the company. Just last year, the fintech firm said it was worth CHF1 billion having attracted big ticket investments from around the world. The digital finance platform employs around 150 staff at its headquarters in Zurich. Operating mainly in the German market, Numbrs had raised $200 million (CHF195 million) in previous funding rounds despite failing to make an annual profit since its inception in 2014.

In August 2015, Samsung Electronics introduced its mobile payment service called Samsung Pay in South Korea. Just a month later, Samsung Pay expanded to the U.S. While celebrating the five-year anniversary of Samsung Pay, the South Korean tech giant has announced that it will be launching an "innovative debit card" in partnership with San Francisco-based fintech company SoFi this summer.

SpotOn Transact, Inc. a leading software and payments company, announced its partnership with SoFi, an online personal finance company that leverages technology to bring financial products that help people get their money right. The partnership helps by bypassing the big-name lenders that were overrun with applications and provide merchants direct and easy access to lenders who can help them immediately.

Years later, Mittal co-founded Stilt Inc., a San Francisco-based startup that offers loans to H-1B visa holders, DACA recipients and other immigrants who are otherwise shut out of traditional banking because of a lack of credit history. On Thursday, Stilt launched a checking account service that will let applicants open an account using just their passport and visa, unlike most banks, which require a social security number or an individual taxpayer identification number.

Mexican fintech Oyster shelled out its latest product in partnership with Mastercard, this new debit card was made for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as freelancers. Correspondingly, this card is different from others that are consumer-oriented. And that’s because it offers business owners and gig workers discounts at over 10,000 locations in Mexico.

tonik Financial Pte Ltd., the digital-only ‘neobank’ operating in Southeast Asia, has selected the Singapore-based digital security company, V-Key - Stronger with V-OS as a mobile security partner in order to offer a secure mobile retail banking platform for its new users in the Philippines.

Viva Republica Ltd., a company that manages Toss, one of the largest South Korean Fintech firms, is reportedly planning to secure around $200 million in additional funding from investors. This, after acquiring $64 million in August 2019. The company says the funds will be used to expand its online banking and security trading platforms.

Australia’s smart bank 86 400 has announced a number of changes to its digital home loan services for brokers. The smart bank has dropped its fixed-rate loans, bringing the 1 and 2-year terms to a low of 2.24 percent p.a. for owner-occupied principal and interest. On assessing home loan applications, it has also reduced the minimum serviceability floor rate to 5.25 percent (which was previously 5.50 percent) on new applications for 86 400 own home loans as part of the assessment process.

Judo Bank's valuation has pushed through $1 billion after its latest capital raising showed investors were willing to put a higher price on the business-focused challenger bank. Judo, founded by former bankers David Hornery and Joseph Healy, will on Thursday say it has closed its third funding round, which raised an extra $230 million in capital.

Co-Founder of the UK’s 1 st Digital Bank Atom Bank, has joined DayTek Capital in Australia as Chief Technology Officer. Paul Hanks, who was previously CTO at Atom Bank, is joining DayTek as the firm “gears up to launch ‘Infinity’, a unique, product disruptive, Australian bank.” Hanks has already been supporting the business as a Technology Advisor, for the past 5 months, according to the company.

TymeBank has logged a 20% decline in the number of new monthly clients it signs up, putting its 2022 break-even target at risk as the Covid-19 pandemic restricts people’s movements. Launched as an app-only bank just more than a year ago to take on established players such as FirstRand and Capitec in the R6-trillion market, TymeBank has set a target of signing up 3-million customers by 2022.

NOTE: This article was featured in my weekly newsletter on May 12, 2020. Do you want to be the first to read the next weekly overview? Sign up for my Weekly Digital Banking Newsletter here.

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