N26

The company was founded as a financial technology startup in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal. The name is derived from the 26-sided Rubik's Cube. In April 2015, N26 received €10 million in a series A round by Valar Ventures. Valar Ventures was co-founded by Peter Thiel, PayPal's co-founder.

Initially, Number 26 started operations without holding a banking license; instead, it was merely an interface while the back end was provided by Wirecard. In July 2016, it re-branded as N26 Bank, having received its own banking license from BaFin.

In December 2016, N26 announced that its basic current account would become available to 17 Eurozone countries.

In March 2018, N26 raised $160 million in a series C round by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings and Allianz X (Allianz). On the same date, N26 claimed a customer base of 850,000, with the goal of having 5,000,000 customers by 2020.

In January 2019, N26 raised an additional $300 million in a series D round led by Insight Venture Partners with Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC and a few existing investors also participating at a valuation of $2.7 billion. With its new valuation of $2.7 billion, N26 overtook Revolut as the most valuable mobile bank in Europe.

On 11 July 2019, N26 soft launched in the United States, initially allowing customers to sign up for a waiting list. Due to differences in the U.S. market (particularly in regards to regulatory schemes for financial providers), N26 partnered with Axos Bank to serve as the provider of its services, insured under FDIC. Unlike in Europe, where they are provided by MasterCard, N26 uses Visa cards for U.S. customers. The following week, the company extended its series D round with an additional $170 million investment, valuing the company at $3.5 billion. In May 2020, the company announced the extension of its recent Series D round with an additional $100M raised at the same valuation.

On 11 February 2020, N26 announced that it will cease doing business in the United Kingdom and close all accounts effective 15 April, due to the UK withdrawal from the European Union. The company cited that European financial institutions can no longer operate in the region without applying for a banking license in the UK (rather than being allowed to operate under its EU license), as well as "the timings and framework outlined in the EU Withdrawal Agreement".

In September 2020, N26 announced the appointment of former Dropbox executive Adrienne Gormley as the company's chief operating officer, replacing Martin Schilling who parted with the company in March.