The cautionary tale of fintech N26

N26 vs Revolut and Monzo

Two young men had a dream. In 2019, Valentin Stalf, the co-founder of the German neobank N26, told TechCrunch, “I think we have the opportunity to really build a business with a hundred million customers globally.” In 2018, Revolut said it was targeting 100 million users. Today, N26 has around 5 million customers. Last year, having reached 50 million customers, Revolut co-founder Nik Storonsky once again emphasized his ambition to hit 100 million customers.

This week, Valentin Stalf announced he was standing down as co-CEO of N26 after turmoil with regulators and investors, while Storonsky’s grip over Revolut has never been so strong.

So, what happened?

The origin story

N26 was one of the first of Europe’s neobanks to launch. They were founded in Berlin in 2013 and secured a banking license in 2016. In the early days of neobanks, N26 was seen as a major potential competitor to the UK neobanks, and they we…