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Image credits: bunq

bunq, an Amsterdam-based challenger bank, announced that it has launched a new  ‘Easy Investments’ feature as part of the latest upgrade to its app, bunq Update 19. 

The new feature enables users to invest in a range of socially and environmentally responsible companies straight from the banking app. 

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Collaboration with birdee

For this initiative, the Dutch fintech company collaborates with birdee, a socially responsible investment platform making investing accessible to everyone at the lowest price possible.  

As a part of the initiative, bunq will now give its users the option of investing through three diversified portfolios based on environmentally friendly criteria. 

It will allow them to earn more effortlessly and remove the hassle of managing individual stocks and shares, mentions the company in a press release. 

bunq founder and CEO Ali Niknam hailed the company’s move into the investing space saying, “This is a really exciting development for bunq. With ‘Easy Investments’, bunq users can put their money to work and earn more effortlessly, all while helping to build a greener planet.”

How does this work?

Upon updating the app, users can access the option to open an Easy Investments sub-account. 

“The app will give you recommendations about what investing strategy fits you best and for this, we’ll ask a couple of questions in advance,” mentions the company in a blog. 

Currently, the company offers three strategies:

• Less risk – lower risk and lower expected return
• Some risk – stability in risk, and return
• Vegas baby! – more risk and higher expected return

Update 19

The latest update includes the addition of 10 more foreign currencies to the bunq app. It means users can now receive, hold, convert, and spend in 15 different currencies directly from their phones. 

The company has also updated the ‘Friends’ feature, which was introduced in the earlier updates. It lets users find all their bunq friends in one place. Users can also see all the countries they and their friends have visited (in green) and the countries their friends liked the most (in blue). 

Last year, bunq became the first European digital bank to start offering mortgages. The neobank joined Dutch lending platform Tulp to deliver the service

bunq: What you need to know

bunq was founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Ali Niknam after he secured the first European banking permit in over 35 years. Niknam was bunq’s sole investor until 2021, financing the company with €98.7M of his own money.

In April 2021, their deposits surpassed €1B for the first time, having doubled in 2019 and then again in 2020. 

In July 2021, bunq announced the largest series A round ever secured by a European fintech. bunq raised €193M in a deal with British private equity firm Pollen Street Capital, valuing bunq at approximately €1.6B. 

Currently, the neobank is available in 30 European markets – the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Ireland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Iceland.

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