German digital bank N26 has today closed a €110m Series C funding round, and is now ready to fund its planned expansion to the United States. Both U.S. and European investors took part in the round, with an official announcement expected from N26 within the next fortnight*.
According to sources, co-founder and CEO Valentin Stalf (pictured, left) told staff last week to expect an imminent launch in the U.S. as he announced the results of the round. The bank initially stated its plans to cross the Atlantic last year, with a launch planned for mid-2018.
N26 currently has eight staff based within its New York office, and opened up its U.S. waiting list to consumers in October 2017. The firm has said its signing up around 5,000 new users per day, recently surpassing the 1m user milestone.
The news comes as UK-based digital banking start-ups Revolut and Monzo are also in the midst of planning U.S.-expansions, with Revolut set to launch in the States in the coming months.
*N.B.: Since publication, Tencent and Allianz have been announced as lead investors in the round. Stalf also confirmed in an interview with TechCrunch that N26 has now reached its pre-IPO stage, likely to be the result of its latest valuation coming in too high for the bank to be easily acquired.
