Valentin Stalf is co-founder and CEO of N26. In 2013 he founded N26 with his longtime friend Maximilian Tayenthal. Back then already, both shared a vision of building a bank that the world loves to use. Since the initial product launch in 2015, N26 has grown to include more than 2.5 million customers across 24 European markets — with plans to enter the US in 2019. The firm has raised more than USD 500 million from some of the world’s most well-known investors, including Insight Venture Partners, GIC - Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Tencent, Allianz X, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital, Battery Ventures, in addition to members of the Zalando management board, and Redalpine Ventures. N26 has more than 800 employees based in in Berlin, New York and Barcelona, who are concentrated on reinventing the banking experience for the digital generation. With its full banking license, state-of-the-art technology and no branch network, N26 is redesigning banking for the 21st century. Before N26, Valentin was an Entrepreneur in Residence for Rocket Internet, an incubator and investor in online startups. There he helped to develop several companies in the mobile payments industry, including payleven and Paymill GmbH. Moreover, he worked in strategy consulting and investment banking. Valentin has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management and a master’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of St. Gallen. He is currently a member of the advisory board at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.