N26 has partnered with Stripe to provide their customers with instant top-up of their digital bank accounts. Stripe’s payment processing software will now facilitate credit and debit card top-up options in the N26 app.
N26 previously allowed its customers to top-up accounts through traditional bank transfers, however, the company said it has “decided to turn to an external partner to add new payment methods for faster, more convenient top-ups.”
Irish-based financial services company, Stripe, has now joined N26 to enable credit and debit card top-ups within the N26 app. The app will now also feature digital wallet top-up options in addition to these services as a result of the partnership: “Offering multiple options means users can easily move money with just a few taps on the screen, and without having to sign in to multiple apps.”
In a company statement, Laurens Debeyter, the Head of Strategic Project Management for N26 stated:
“We chose Stripe for its security and compliance in addition to its technology-first mindset which is strongly aligned to ours. […] We have always been impressed with Stripe’s commitment to investing in innovation and their team’s openness to co-create solutions with us.”
“Stripe’s strong documentation and easy-to-use APIs allowed our technical teams to move significantly faster than we normally can with other external vendors.”
Who is N26?
Founded in 2013, N26 is now one of the largest digital-only banks in the world. The fintech company is a German-based bank that operates in more than 20 countries in Europe and has more than seven million customers worldwide — around 200,000 of whom are in Ireland.
Digital-only banks such as N26 and Revolut are built-around smartphone applications which facilitate mobile payment and require the user to top up their account, typically through traditional bank accounts.
Partnering with Stripe serves two functions for N26, as they are seeking to simplify and legitimise the signup process as well as offering additional top-up features: “Stripe is an essential part of our product experience. It helps power a critical step in the onboarding experience, allowing us to bring on new customers easily and quickly,” said a spokesperson for N26.
Catering to a predominantly European market, N26 was judged to have been worth more than Germany’s second-largest bank in 2021 after a $900 million round of public funding. At the time, the fintech firm was valued at a total of $9 billion, far short of competitor Revolut’s valuation of nearly $33 billion. N26 temporarily launched in America, attracting more than 500,000 customers during the two years they operated in the country. The company announced its withdrawal from the US market in Q4 2021 saying: “We are deprioritising the US in order to sharpen our strategic focus on the important role we have to play as a pioneer in digital banking in Europe.”
