Dutch challenger bunq has seen growth in deposits and is hiring new staff as other neobanks are cutting jobs.
Since 2012 bunq was able to go live across 30 countries and has processed over €433m in user deposits. This was done so without a cent of venture capital funding, something almost none of its competitors have managed.
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Ali Niknam, the bunq’s CEO, was an avid programmer since childhood and studied computer science at the Delft University of Technology. He has launched the web-hosting startup TransIP in 2003 when he was only 21 years old. With money from TransIP he founded bunq.
Just recently, bunq announced in a blog post that since the start of COVID-19 in Europe, their total deposits grew by 23%. Bunq’s new users also deposited 280% more in May, compared to April. The dutch challenger bank also welcomed 55 new staff chosen from about 6000 applications they received in the past three months.
Bunq’s most original feature the SuperGreen premium subscription program. With this program, bunq offers to plant a tree for every 100€ spent using the “Green” metal card.
Ali Niknam said to this on May 15th: “In just 4 months, bunq users have come together to plant over 100,000 trees as part of our ongoing work with the Eden Reforestation Project.”
“At bunq, we want to make green easy. That’s why we’re the only bank in the world that enables you to become completely CO2 free in less than 2 years,” he adds.
In the recent blog post, bunq claims they’ve seen a 53% increase in SuperGreen signups between May and June. With this pace, 1 million trees could be planted by the end of this year, doubling bunq’s original goal.
The “Tribes” feature, which will be available in the V3 app (that is now in beta), customers could even multiply their green impact together with their friends.
Ali Niknam is also considering acquiring some fintech companies who are likely struggling during the post-COVID crisis time. “There’s a high quality of assets available at a discount, so somewhere down the line, there will be some sort of mergers or acquisitions by incumbents. But, I’d be surprised if nothing happens,” Niknam told AltFi.
