Early Spotify investor Dragoneer in talks to back $10bn digital bank N26
An early investor in Spotify, the digital music service, is in talks to lead a huge funding round being assembled by one of Europe’s biggest digital banks.
Sky News has learnt that Dragoneer Investment Group has been in discussions about injecting a substantial sum of money into N26, which is based in Germany.
The investment would value N26 at $10bn, making it one of the continent’s most valuable fintech companies.
It was unclear on Monday whether a deal had been signed or whether it could still falter, although one rival banking industry executive said they expected the deal to happen.
In May 2020, N26 announced an extension of its Series D funding round, with its backers including a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures and Insight Venture Partners.
Earlier that year, the company announced that it was pulling out of the UK market, citing Brexit-related issues relating to its European banking licence.
It was unclear, however, whether N26 had made significant inroads into a sector which has become fiercely competitive, with competition from the likes of Monzo, Revolut and Starling Bank.
Revolut became Britain’s most valuable start-up earlier this year when it confirmed it was raising money from investors at a valuation of more than $30bn.
N26, which was founded in 2013, has more than seven million customers.
An N26 spokeswoman declined to comment, while Dragoneer did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
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