bunq

Bunq is a Dutch, internationally active neobank, headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The company was founded in 2015 by Ali Niknam, original founder of the IT company TransIP.[1] Bunq focuses on ease of use transaction accounts and offers both personal and business accounts.

bunq
IndustryFintech
Founded2012
FounderAli Niknam
HeadquartersNaritaweg 131-133, 1043 BS,
Amsterdam
,
Netherlands
Area served
Eurozone
Key people
  • Ali Niknam (CEO)
  • Idzard van Eeghen (CFO/CRO)
  • Michael Brackpool (CPO)
ProductsPremium, Business, Travel & SuperGreen bank accounts.
Number of employees
140 FTE (2020)
Websitewww.bunq.com

Products

Bunq offers a range of online financial services, primarily through its own mobile app. The company's app enables customers to open a free personal account (Bunq Travel) or paid account (Bunq Premium and Bunq Premium SuperGreen) which can also be used by businesses.[2] Additionally, customers can request money from friends, split bills, invest in Green companies, add a +1 to one of their sub-accounts and make payments in real time.[3]

Bunq focuses heavily on online ease of use. The account opening process requires installing the mobile app and can be completed by top-up or video face recognition. After setting up an account, the user can send payments to IBANs, contacts' phone numbers and e-mail addresses. A user can also request money from contacts, or create group sub-accounts.[4]

Company profile

Bunq started out in payments, but expanded to deposit accounts.[5] In 2015, the company received its official banking license with the Dutch Central Bank (DNB).[1] This enabled the company to execute transactions with other banks and guarantee all account holders up to €100,000 in deposits, according to the Deposit Guarantee Scheme.[6] Through the banking license, customers can get an IBAN bank account number, deposit salaries and make payments to other banks.[7]

History

Bunq's earliest stages began in 2012, after Niknam had already set up the web-hosting company TransIP in 2003. In September 2014, Bunq obtained its official banking permit with DNB. At the end of 2015, the company had sixty employees, consisting mostly of young ITs, but also two bankers with a past at the Royal Bank of Scotland. The cooperation of experienced bankers was a prerequisite for obtaining the banking license.[1]

In September 2015, Bunq raised €16.7 million in seed funds.[8] The first beta version of the app was launched on a limited scale, and in November 2015, the app was available to the public. Early on, Bunq was recognized as the 'WhatsApp of banking' - being one of the first Fintech startups to remove the need for IBANs.[9] Following this in December 2015, it was discovered that the app stored unprotected photo IDs on Android, giving other apps access to the same device. The problem was repaired shortly after disclosure.[10]

In August 2017, Bunq introduced a new pricing plan, which included the three cards and twenty-five accounts for a fixed fee per month.[11]

In December 2017, Bunq started using 'Instant Payments' (implementing SCT Inst) which is a system that enables users to transfer money to other bank accounts and banks in Europe, within seconds.[12]

Financial data
Year Employees in FTE Total assets Net result
2013[13] 12 € 621.389,-
2014[13] 25 € 14.652.880,- € -1.680.167,-
2015[13] 39 € 11.654.623,- € -3.501.800,-
2016[14] 55 € 29.090.907,- € -5.273.065,-
2017[15] 78 € 126.510.243,- € -9.007.583,-
2018[16] 82 € 230.546.719,- € -11.117.288,-
2019[17] Unknown € 433.410.761,- Unknown

Controversy

Starting in 2017, Bunq increased the price of their premium subscription for old users. Instead of the €1/month that was promised, Bunq increased the price to €7,99/month.[18]

With the latest release of update v3 with the closed beta starting on May 29, 2020 and official release on June 17th, 2020, there was a lot of controversy around the new app and the direction of the company itself.[19]

Ali Niknam, CEO of Bunq, had the following to say in Sprout surrounding the controversy:

"Change is not always good for everyone. But I think it's good to realize the bigger picture of what Bunq is doing. We know very well what our users want, but it is not one group. Some are more tech savvy and outspoken on our forum and on Twitter. Those are the users that you mainly hear now. Other users are actually the silent majority, and they are reflected in the choices they make, such as the products they use. Some users think we should spend a lot of time on a very narrow set of features around managing money, say the more gadget-like things. But we also pay attention to people who care about the fortunes of the climate, for example."

[19]

References
  1. Huizinga, Siebe (2017). Break Through Banking. Kompas. ISBN 978 94 9210 707 7.
  2. "bunq Pricing Consumers & Businesses" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  3. "bunq BV: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  4. "'Banken zijn bang, start-ups maken de killer-apps' - Tech - Voor nieuws, achtergronden en columns". De Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  5. "Klarna, a Swedish fintech unicorn, gets a full banking licence". The Economist. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  6. "Financiële start-ups krijgen meer kansen - Tech - Voor nieuws, achtergronden en columns". De Volkskrant (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  7. "Bunq: 'WhatsApp voor banken'". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-11-13.
  8. "bunq | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  9. "Bunq: 'WhatsApp voor banken'". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  10. "Bank-app sloeg foto's identiteitsbewijzen onbeveiligd op" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  11. bunq (2017-10-10), bunq Update #5, retrieved 2018-05-02
  12. "Instant Payments tussen ABN AMRO en bunq nu mogelijk". www.banken.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-05-02.
  13. Financial data 2013 - 2015 kvk.nl
  14. Financial statement 2016
  15. Financial statement 2017
  16. Financial statement 2018
  17. Financial statement 2019
  18. Parool, Het (2017-08-02). "Bunq verhoogt prijs, gebruikers woest". Het Parool (in Dutch). Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  19. "Gebruikers klagen na nieuwe update Bunq, wat is er aan de hand?". Sprout (in Dutch). Retrieved 2020-06-19.
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