DTC’s Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. In today’s edition: N26 launches in the US; Revolut opens tech hub in Berlin; WeSwap on fundraising path. 

N26 launches in the US

European fintech startup N26 is now accepting customers in the US, following competitor Monzo stateside. This means customers in the U.S. can download a mobile app and create a bank account from their phone in just a few minutes.

Similar to other challenger banks, you will then receive a debit card that you can control from the mobile app. Every time you make a transaction, you instantly receive a push notification telling you how much money you just paid.

N26 is going to progressively roll out signups over the summer as a sort of beta program. There are currently 100,000 people on the waitlist. N26 will then open signups to everyone later this summer. When N26 rolls out its final product in a couple of months, the company says that it plans to automatically find and reimburse fees the ATM operators are charging. 

N26 currently has 3.5 million customers in Europe and has raised more than $500 million in total so far. There are now a thousand people working for N26 in Berlin, 60 employees in New York, 80 people in Barcelona and a small team of five to 10 people starting soon in Vienna.

Revolut opens tech hub in Berlin

Fintech startup Revolut is opening a small tech hub in Berlin. There’s already a glut of fintech talent in the city, which is home to N26. Revolut plans to hire 80 people at first for many different tech jobs, from software engineering to data science, product and growth.

And this isn’t just about hiring talent in other cities. Revolut plans to customise its product a bit more for the German market, and more generally Europe. The team in Berlin will also work on Revolut’s commission-free stock trading feature, a sort of Robinhood competitor for Europe. The company is also working on an app for children, maybe as an alternative to a first bank account.

There are currently 150,000 Revolut users in Germany. The company will have a local marketing and communications team to expand more aggressively in that market.

It’s still hard to create a global fintech app that works all around the world. People manage their money in different ways depending on the country in which they live, and fintech startups are also realising that, now that they have a solid product offering at home.

WeSwap on fundraising path

Peer-to-peer travel money platform WeSwap, has raised over £2.2m through Seedrs. The platform, which has over 500,000 users lets customers swap currency with other travellers through our peer-to-peer technology, spend money globally, track rates and send money to friends.

They have also grown a portfolio of new travel money products - including buyback, next day cash delivery and transfers (beta) - which have increased and diversified revenue streams.

Since 2015, WeSwap has built a robust and scalable peer to peer travel money platform that has facilitated the exchange of over £255 million. The proceeds from this round of funding will be used to launch in new markets, with the goal of reaching a new country by the end of 2019. 

With the card and app well established in the UK, the focus here is to grow their business in money transfers, while also launching a subscription model.