Smartphone-Only Bank NUMBER26 Gets $10.8M Deposit

NUMBER26, the startup bank that operates entirely on a smartphone, has pulled in €10 million ($10.8 million) in funding.

The Series A investment round for the German-based company, it was announced in a press release yesterday (April 16), was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. Also contributing were Swiss entrepreneur Daniel S. Aegerter and existing investors Earlybird and Redalpine.

Enabled by Germany’s Wirecare Bank, NUMBER26, it is expressed in the press release, offers its customers individual security settings, convenient financial management tools and push notifications for every transaction. The company — which cites the time it takes to open a new account with them as eight minutes — professes to have grown a customer base of 8,500 in two months, and that 15,000 more are officially waiting to join. There are no fees attached to creating an account with Number26.

Andrew McCormack, Partner at Valar Ventures, commented in the release: “We are delighted to support Valentin and Maximilian in changing banking. NUMBER26 already offers the most modern bank account for smartphones. We see huge potential for companies who are pursuing innovative paths in banking.”

Also in the release, Valentin Stalf, founder and CEO of NUMBER26, added: “Winning Valar Ventures’ backing is a huge step for us. Their experience with PayPal, Transferwise and Xero has already set an example for the disruption of the outdated models in financial technology. Valar’s experience and networks will help us build an even greater company.”

To that end, Stalf additionally told TechCrunch that more features are in the works. “We are going to work a lot on bringing more intelligence into the account,” he said. “Currently, if you look at the timeline of your transactions, it’s completely static. Going forward, we want to inform you more actively when important transactions come in.”