Bunq acquires Tricount to consolidate its position as Super-app in Europe

Bunq, the Dutch neo-bank, has announced that it has acquired Belgian FinTech Tricount, a specialist in expense sharing. This acquisition allows it to reach a new dimension on a European scale, by imposing itself as the second most important neo-bank in Europe, behind Revolut.

FACTS

• Bunq has boosted its expansion in Europe by acquiring Tricount. The friend-to-friend spending service has a customer base of some 5.4 million people.

• The terms of the transaction and the acquisition, which is pending regulatory approval, were not disclosed. Bunq will nevertheless continue to offer the expense sharing service developed by Tricount.

• Bunq has also been working on the launch of several new features:

  • Jackpot, a novel lottery service allowing Dutch, German and French users of Bunq's services to have three chances to win prizes of EUR 10,000 each month (the chances of winning increase according to the rate of use of Bunq's services),

  • new tools for customising the application (e.g. highlighting favourite tabs),

  • an updated "Community" feature, allowing all Bunq customers to share their comments on the service, as well as other information, as on any social network.

CHALLENGES

• Consolidate its European positioning: with an international presence, Tricount relies above all on a solid user base in Europe (particularly in France, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Italy). Bunq also operates in these markets but can now strongly consolidate its customer portfolio thanks to the acquisition of Tricount. Bunq has also had the luxury of acquiring a profitable player since 2021, in particular thanks to its premium subscriptions.

• Expanding its offer: following this takeover, Bunq is preparing to launch a new feature, called Slice, which allows the management of accounts between friends; a feature that has made Tricount's application so successful.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Bunq's acquisition of Tricount confirms the ambitions of the neo-bank, which announced last July its intention to grow through acquisitions and mergers, following its Series A funding round. At the time, Bunq was already becoming a unicorn and making its mark in Europe.

• Bunq was founded by its sole shareholder in 2012 in the Netherlands and launched in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and France in 2018. A pioneer compared to Revolut (founded in 2014), the neo-bank was quickly overtaken by its younger sibling and communicates little about the number of its customers (estimated at 1.1 million in 2019). Revolut has nearly 1.5 million customers in France alone, and over 16 million worldwide.