Pollen Street Capital are pleased to announce the merger of Capitalflow and bunq. The Dutch central bank has approved the merger as part of a €193 million funding round agreed between bunq and Pollen Street Capital. The deal values the Amsterdam-based challenger bank at €1.6 billion.

bunq will use the injection of funds to fuel the company’s growth across Europe, following this year’s introduction of German, French and Spanish IBANs to its offering and the opening of offices in Paris and Cologne. To help achieve this goal, the bank plans to double its total number of staff by the end of 2022.

The new funds will also allow bunq to incorporate M&A into its business growth strategy. As part of the approved deal, bunq has made its first acquisition, securing the purchase of privately-held Irish lender Capitalflow.

“We’re incredibly excited to start this next chapter in bunq’s history. Being self-funded until now has given bunq the freedom to build a product our users love. Now we can scale up that mission across Europe and beyond”, says Ali Niknam, founder and CEO of bunq.

The announcement marks another milestone in a memorable year for bunq. The challenger bank passed the €1 billion mark in user deposits in April and reported its first ever profitable month in July, in a sector where many struggle to be in the black, even with large capital investments.