騰訊攜手安聯投資柏林數字零售銀行

N26, the German online bank and a flagship start-up in the Berlin fintech sector, has raised $160m from a group of investors led by Tencent, the Chinese internet and social media group, and Allianz X, the insurance group’s digital investment unit.

作為柏林金融科技領域旗艦初創(chuàng)公司的德國網上銀行N26，從一批投資者籌集了1.6億美元，牽頭這些投資者的是中國互聯網和社交媒體集團騰訊(Tencent)以及保險集團安聯(Allianz)的數字投資部門Allianz X。

The funding round marks the latest vote of confidence in Berlin’s technology sector, which has seen a flurry of big investments and stock market listings over the past year.

本輪籌資是對柏林科技行業(yè)投下的最新一張信心票，在過去一年時間里，該行業(yè)見證了一連串大手筆投資和在股市上市。

According to data released by EY yesterday, Berlin-based start-ups raised €2.97bn in 2017, up from €1.1bn the previous year. Among European tech hubs, only London was more successful, with start-ups based in the UK capital drawing €4.88bn in investment last year.

安永(EY)昨日發(fā)布的數據顯示，2017年總部位于柏林的初創(chuàng)公司共籌集了29.7億歐元，遠高于上一年的11億歐元。在歐洲科技樞紐中，只有倫敦比柏林更成功，去年總部位于倫敦的初創(chuàng)公司共籌集48.8億歐元。

Valentin Stalf, co-founder and chief executive of N26, said the deal with Tencent and Allianz X was “one of the biggest funding rounds for a fintech in Europe and the biggest ever for a German fintech”. He described the two new investors as “powerhouses in their respective fields of financial and internet services”.

N26的聯合創(chuàng)始人和首席執(zhí)行官瓦倫丁•施塔爾夫(Valentin Stalf)表示，與騰訊和Allianz X的交易是“歐洲金融科技領域最大一輪籌資之一，也是德國金融科技公司有史以來獲得的最大籌資”。他把兩家新投資者形容為“活躍于各自所在的金融和互聯網服務領域的強大提供商”。

Mr Stalf said the company planned to use the latest investment to accelerate its expansion — N26 is due to launch in the UK and the US later this year — and to invest in product development. The company, which was awarded a German banking licence in 2016, has raised $215m to date. It has not revealed the size of the stake taken by outside investors, nor the overall valuation of N26.

施塔爾夫表示，該公司計劃利用最新一輪投資來加速推進擴張——N26即將在今年晚些時候登陸英國和美國——并投資于產品研發(fā)。該公司于2016年獲得了德國銀行業(yè)務牌照，迄今籌集了2.15億美元。N26并未透露外部投資者的持股規(guī)模，以及該公司整體估值。

Founded in 2013, N26 is a digital retail bank that allows customers to conduct payments and other banking transactions through its mobile phone app. It has 850,000 customers in 17 European markets, and claims to sign up more than 2,000 new customers every day.

N26創(chuàng)辦于2013年，是一家數字零售銀行，讓客戶通過手機App來完成支付和其他銀行交易。該公司在17個歐洲市場擁有85萬客戶，聲稱每天簽約逾2000名新客戶。

Unlike traditional retail banks, N26 operates no branch network, giving it a lower cost base than rivals. Despite the recent rapid growth, the company has just 380 employees.

與傳統(tǒng)零售銀行不同，N26沒有分行網點，因而成本基礎低于競爭對手。盡管近年增長迅速，但該公司只有380名員工。

N26 said in a statement yesterday that it planned to personalise its offering to clients further through the use of artificial intelligence, adding that AI “will allow the bank of the future to become more adaptive to customers’ needs and solve the problems in a way that is currently missing among traditional retail banks”.

N26昨日在一份聲明中表示，計劃通過使用人工智能來為客戶提供更進一步的個性化服務，并補充稱，人工智能“將使未來的銀行變得更善于適應客戶的需求，并以目前傳統(tǒng)零售銀行所欠缺的方式來解決問題”。

Solmaz Altin, chief digital officer of the Allianz group, said in a statement: “N26 is a clear frontrunner in mobile banking. N26’s banking platform is modernising traditional business models of financial services.”

安聯集團首席數字官索爾馬茲•阿爾廷(Solmaz Altin)在一份聲明中稱：“N26是移動銀行領域的明顯領先者。N26的銀行業(yè)務平臺正使傳統(tǒng)的金融服務商業(yè)模式現代化。”

The German group contributed a quarter of the funding, investing about $40m, a person with knowledge of the matter told the Financial Times.

一名知情人士向英國《金融時報》表示，這家德國集團貢獻了本輪籌資的四分之一，投資約4000萬美元。

Lin Haifeng, managing partner at Tencent Investment, said: “We see the increasing demand of digital banking products and services in European markets and we are delighted to be a strategic investor of N26 to build a long-term partnership and participate in their growth.”

騰訊投資(Tencent Investment)管理合伙人林海峰表示：“我們看到歐洲市場對數字銀行產品和服務的需求日益增長，很高興成為N26的戰(zhàn)略投資者，建立長期的合作伙伴關系，并參與該行的成長。”

Additional reporting by Olaf Storbeck in Frankfurt Olaf Storbeck法蘭克福補充報道