N26 has many new customers, but continues to make high losses

Despite deep red figures, the fintech wants to go public in the medium term.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the digital bank N26 was able to acquire two million new customers. This brings the customer base to seven million users, co-founder Valentin Stalf told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Nevertheless, the fintech is still incurring high losses: in 2020, N26 generated a loss of 110 million euros in its core European market.

"Our business model enabled us to continue to grow quickly and in a very sustainable way while strengthening our digital value proposition and relevance in a challenging economic environment," said Stalf about the latest figures. In 2019, the loss was 217 million euros. In the same year, N26 had a turnover of 100 million euros. The bank charges fees for premium accounts and collects commissions for payment transaction services.

Stalf dismissed the rumors of an imminent IPO. N26 should be "stock market-ready" by the end of the year in terms of internal structures, reporting and the composition of the management team. "We could perhaps even make the decision to go public as early as 2022. But that has to be prepared operationally." However, the IPO would also depend on the development of business in 2021 and 2022.