Aleksandre Dgebuadze
Tbilisi, Georgia · PersonExecutive at Silk Bank, a Georgian financial institution active in digital banking and payments. He is an announced speaker at FUTURUM Payments Georgia 2026 in Tbilisi.
Directory
Banking startup ecosystem
We track 31 organisations in this sector across 6+ countries.
31 entries.
Alexandre Prot
Paris, France · PersonCo-founder and CEO of Qonto, the business-banking platform for SMEs and freelancers he co-founded in 2016. He scaled it into one of Europe's most valuable fintechs, backed by Tiger, TCV and Alven.
BLIK
Warsaw, Poland · StartupPoland's dominant mobile-payment system, launched in 2015 by Polski Standard Płatności — a joint venture of six major Polish banks. BLIK enables in-store, online, ATM and peer-to-peer payments via six-digit one-time codes generated in a banking app, processes billions of transactions a year and has expanded internationally. Led by CEO Dariusz Mazurkiewicz.
bunq
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startupbunq is an Amsterdam-based digital bank founded in 2012 by Ali Niknam, a serial entrepreneur who self-funded the company with EUR 40 million of his own capital. bunq holds a full European banking license from the Dutch Central Bank and offers personal and business accounts with features like multi-currency support, real-time budgeting, automated savings, and fee-free international transfers. The bank has attracted over 12 million users and reached profitability, with a reported valuation of EUR 1.6 billion. bunq differentiates itself through its user-centric philosophy and sustainability focus, planting trees for every EUR 100 spent by users. It is one of the few European neobanks built without initial venture capital backing.
Cezary Smorszczewski
Warsaw, Poland · Angel InvestorCezary Smorszczewski is a Polish financier and fintech investor with nearly three decades of experience across state energy, banking and private equity. He co-founded Alior Bank in 2008 and led it to a ~$2bn London listing in 2012, then ran Private Equity Managers S.A. before launching Corviglia Capital Fund, a Luxembourg-based global fintech growth-equity vehicle. He has held senior roles at PKN Orlen and Bank Pekao and currently sits on the boards of Twisto, Upaid, Sparados and Moleo, investing across CEE fintech and technology.
Elevator Ventures
Vienna, Austria · AcceleratorElevator Ventures is the corporate venture capital unit of Raiffeisen Bank International, co-backed by Raiffeisen-Holding Niederösterreich-Wien and Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark, managing funds of more than €100 million. The firm targets Series A and B fintech and beyond-banking companies, with a focus on the DACH and CEE regions, and has invested over €60 million in 21 companies, achieving seven exits. It originated from Elevator Lab, an RBI accelerator launched in 2017 to scout startup partners globally.
Fintech Inn 2026
Vilnius, Lithuania · EventLithuania's flagship fintech conference reflecting Vilnius's status as a European fintech licensing hub with 200+ licensed firms. Attracts 2,000+ attendees including regulators, banks, and fintech founders. Strong focus on payments, open banking, and embedded finance.
Ignazio Angeloni
Limassol, Cyprus · PersonEconomist at Bocconi University and SAFE, and a former member of the ECB Supervisory Board, specialising in banking and monetary policy. He is an announced speaker at the Digital Assets and the Future of Finance Summit 2026 in Cyprus.
Joel Perlman
London, United Kingdom · PersonCo-founder of OakNorth and earlier co-founder of Copal Amba with Rishi Khosla. He has spent his career building financial-data and lending businesses.
Jonas Templestein
London, United Kingdom · PersonCo-founder and former CTO of Monzo, where he built the engineering organisation behind the challenger bank's mobile-first platform. He previously co-founded GoCardless with Tom Blomfield.
Juni
Gothenburg, Sweden · StartupJuni is a Gothenburg-based financial management platform for e-commerce businesses, founded in June 2020 by Samir El-Sabini, Jonathan Sanders, and Anders Orsedal. The platform offers multi-currency accounts, virtual and physical cards, credit products, analytics, and accounting integrations designed specifically for online merchants and digital advertisers. Juni holds an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence from Sweden's Finansinspektionen and has raised $282 million across five funding rounds including a $206 million Series B.
Lunar
Aarhus, Denmark · StartupLunar is a Nordic digital challenger bank founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2015, holding its own Danish banking licence since 2019 — the first Scandinavian challenger bank to do so. It serves over a million users across Denmark, Sweden and Norway with a full-stack app spanning current and savings accounts, Visa debit and metal cards, loans, buy-now-pay-later, stock and ETF investing and crypto trading via Lunar Block. Lunar Business extends these to SMEs, reaching 40,000 business customers by early 2026. In December 2024 Lunar spun out its banking-as-a-service arm as Moonrise, giving fintechs instant-payment access across the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish krona via a single API. Lunar has raised around €537M in total, including a €315M Series D (2021–2023) led by Aarhus family office Heartland with Kinnevik, Tencent and Seed Capital, and a €46M growth round in January 2026 with Heartland, Orbit Alliance and new investor 100A. Targeting profitability in 2026, the bank appointed former Saxo Bank deputy CEO Søren Kyhl as CEO in mid-2026, with co-founder Ken Villum Klausen moving to the board.
Mambu
Berlin, Germany · StartupMambu is a Berlin-founded, Amsterdam-headquartered SaaS cloud core-banking platform, established in 2011 by Eugene Danilkis, Frederik Pfisterer and Sofia Nunes. It pioneered the 'composable banking' model, in which banks, neobanks, lenders and fintechs assemble modular, API-first components for deposits, loans and payments instead of replacing entire legacy cores. The platform serves 280+ institutions across 65 countries, supports 114 million end clients and processes nearly 200 million API calls daily, with customers including N26, ABN AMRO, OakNorth and Western Union. Mambu became one of Germany's most valuable fintechs after a €110M Series D led by TCV in January 2021, followed by a €235M Series E led by EQT Growth in December 2021 valuing it at €4.9bn. Total funding is about €410M, backed by a syndicate including EQT Growth (Sweden), TCV, Tiger Global, Bessemer, Runa Capital and German investors Acton Capital, CommerzVentures and Point Nine. In December 2024 it made its first acquisition, buying Paris payments gateway Numeral, and launched Mambu Payments in 2025.
Marko Wenthin
Berlin, Germany · PersonMarko Wenthin is Co-founder of the banking-as-a-service platform Solaris. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Marko leads the banking-as-a-service platform Solaris.
Maximilian Tayenthal
Berlin, Germany · PersonMaximilian Tayenthal is Co-founder of the German mobile bank N26. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Maximilian leads the German mobile bank N26.
Money20/20 Europe 2026
Amsterdam, Netherlands · EventThe premier global event for the fintech and financial services industry in Europe, held annually in Amsterdam, showcasing innovation and future trends in payments and commerce.
Monzo
London, United Kingdom · StartupMonzo is one of the UK's leading digital-only banks, offering a mobile-first current account with features like instant spending notifications, fee-free foreign spending, budgeting tools, and salary sorting. Founded in 2015, Monzo has grown to over 9 million customers and achieved profitability in 2024. The company holds a full UK banking license and has expanded into business accounts, lending, and investment products.
N26
Berlin, Germany · StartupN26 is a Berlin-based digital bank with a mobile-first current account and financial products for consumers across Europe. In May 2024, BaFin lifted the growth restrictions previously imposed on the bank, clearing the way for renewed customer expansion. In 2025 N26 rolled out free stock and ETF trading for all eligible customers, adding investing to its core banking offering. The company positions itself as a full-stack European challenger bank with a focus on product breadth and operational discipline.
Nikolay Storonsky
London, United Kingdom · PersonCo-founder and CEO of Revolut, which he scaled from a multi-currency card into one of the world's most valuable fintechs, with tens of millions of customers and a full UK banking licence. A former derivatives trader, he is among Europe's most prominent fintech founders.
Paul Taylor
London, United Kingdom · PersonFounder and CEO of Thought Machine, the cloud-native core-banking platform. He previously founded a speech-technology company acquired by Google, where he built voice systems before turning to banking infrastructure.
Peter Bosek
Alpbach, Austria · PersonAustrian banking executive and Chief Executive Officer of Erste Group Bank, one of Central and Eastern Europe's largest financial services providers, with a long career in retail and digital banking. He is an announced speaker at the 2026 European Forum Alpbach.
Qonto
Paris, France · StartupQonto is a Paris-based digital business bank founded in 2016 by Steve Anavi and Alexandre Prot to simplify financial management for SMEs and freelancers. The platform offers business accounts, corporate cards, expense management, bookkeeping integrations, and invoicing in a single interface. Qonto has raised over EUR 600 million from investors including Tiger Global, Valar Ventures, Tencent, and DST Global, reaching a valuation of EUR 5 billion. It serves over 500,000 business customers across France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and acquired German competitor Penta in 2022. Qonto is Europe's largest digital finance platform purpose-built for small businesses.
Rishi Khosla
London, United Kingdom · PersonCo-founder and CEO of OakNorth, the SME-lending bank, which he started after struggling to get a loan for an earlier business. He previously co-founded Copal Amba, sold to Moody's.
Sai Agnikhotram
Istanbul, Turkey · PersonSenior Vice President at Sygnum Bank leading bank-to-bank integration and enablement for digital-asset banking. He is an announced speaker at Eurasia Tech Week 2026 in Istanbul.
Solarisbank
Berlin, Germany · StartupEmbedded banking platform providing regulated accounts, cards, and payments APIs. Solarisbank is a startup based in Berlin, Germany at the growth stage. The company operates in the Fintech, Banking space. Learn more at their website.
Starling Bank
London, United Kingdom · StartupStarling Bank is a London-based digital bank founded in 2014 by Anne Boden, offering personal, business and joint current accounts through a mobile app under a full UK banking licence. It was one of the first British neobanks to reach sustained profitability and also licenses its banking technology to other institutions through its Engine software subsidiary. It employs several thousand people and reports revenue of more than 880 million pounds.
Steve Anavi
Paris, France · PersonCo-founder and president of Qonto, which he started with Alexandre Prot after the two had earlier co-founded the price-comparison startup Smokio.
Tom Blomfield
London, United Kingdom · PersonCo-founder of Monzo and previously GoCardless, and one of the UK's best-known fintech founders. He led Monzo from a prepaid card to a licensed bank with millions of customers before stepping back; he is now a group partner at Y Combinator.
Trade Republic
Berlin, Germany · StartupTrade Republic is Europe's largest savings platform and a commission-free neobroker offering stocks, ETFs, derivatives, and crypto trading via a mobile-first app. Founded in Berlin, the company holds a German banking license and serves over 4 million customers across 17 European countries. Trade Republic has been valued at over $5 billion and is a leading force in the democratization of retail investing across Europe.
Valentin Stalf
Berlin, Germany · PersonValentin Stalf is Co-founder & CEO of the German mobile bank N26. A founder in the German startup ecosystem, Valentin leads the German mobile bank N26.
Vlad Yatsenko
London, United Kingdom · PersonCo-founder and CTO of Revolut, responsible for the engineering platform behind the super-app's rapid global expansion. He previously built trading systems at major investment banks.