084: Money Talks #12: Challenger Bank Brands - Bó, Revolut & N26
In this Money Talks segment, Pete and Eoin riff on the shutdown of the RBS challenger bank brand 'Bo', Revolut's M&A ambitions, what N26's latest fundraising means in the great universe of challenger banks.... and their latest reads!
This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment. If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.
In this episode, Eoin Fitzgerald and Pete Townsend dig into three pieces of content from this week that are relevant to the cosmic cloud of startups and enterprise in which they live, with a focus on the latest news from challenger bank brands. The stories covered in this week's episode include:
- RBS axes digital bank Bó (TechCrunch, 01-May-20) - Bó, the digital bank developed by RBS-owned Natwest, is to shutter, just 6 months after launching publicly and gathering 11,000 customers.
- Revolut on the hunt for acquisitions (FT, 06-May-20) - Revolut is looking to use some of the proceeds of its recent $500m fundraising to buy rival technology companies that have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with an unexpected focus on travel aggregators.
- N26 raises another $100mn at $3.5bn valuation (Finextra, 06-May-20) - N26 recently ditched their UK strategy but expanded to the US with some initial success - but what's next for them in competing with Revolut, Monzo, Starling and Chime? Besides the obvious benefit of Revolut and FX, why would you chose one over the other?
Also, deeper insight on other topics we referred to include the below that were conveniently published in the two days between recording and publishing this episode:
- Wirecard's troubles - as covered by Chris Skinner on 08-May-20.
- Build, buy or transform a bank - also from Chris Skinner on 07-May-20
Finally, see below for Pete and Eoin's latest reads referred to on this episode:
- Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter - Dan Ariely
- Talking to My Daughter About the Economy - Yannis Varoufakis
- Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist - both by Mohsin Hamid
To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.
Pete Townsend
Co-Host
Early-stage startup investor, MD @Techstars Web3, founder of Norio Ventures, mentor, non-executive director, podcaster and bad guitar player.
