Dutch neobank Bunq’s announcement on Monday that it has raised €44.5 million in fresh equity to support its growth gave nothing away about the legal row between the company’s founder, Ali Niknam, and shareholder Pollen Street in recent times.
The company said that Niknam and UK-based Pollen Street had each committed to the funding round, valuing the company at €1.65 billion, unchanged from an equity raise two years ago, when Pollen Street took a 10 per cent stake in the Bunq. The 2021 deal allowed Bunq to buy Irish business lender Capitalflow from Pollen Street.
“It’s been a truly magical year for Bunq: we’re rapidly expanding and have seen massive deposit growth,” said Niknam, who said the company expects to have its first full-year profit in 2023.
However, Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad gave a rundown over the weekend on tensions simmering since last summer between Niknam and Pollen Street, when Bunq required capital and the UK firm refused to help. The founder and Bunq’s chief information officer Raymond Kasiman subsequently injected €58.5 million into the business.
Things got testier during the latest cash call, resulting in the matter coming before the Amsterdam commercial court. The newspaper reported that Pollen Street was again reluctant to commit fresh capital this time, claiming the business had fallen in value.
The UK firm called for an alternative strategy based on a slower rate of growth than the one that saw its user deposits double in just four months to surpass €4.5 billion and users reach 9 million. Its alternative approach also envisaged Bunq selling Capitalflow, a business that earlier this year passed €1 billion in lending to Irish SME and sole trader customers since its inception in 2016.
A spokeswoman for Bunq confirmed that the dispute between the two main shareholders had been resolved, but declined to say what that meant for the future of Capitalflow within the group. Representatives for Pollen Street and Capitalflow also declined to comment.
