Fintech startup Bunq is launching in 22 additional markets today. It is now going to be available in all European Union markets as well as Norway and Iceland. Overall, users can sign up in 30 countries.

In addition to today’s geographic expansion, the company is enabling Apple Pay and Google Pay support for Travel Card users in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Ireland (Google Pay isn’t available in the Netherlands).

Bunq wants to create a bank account that works better. Originally from the Netherlands, Bunq is already available in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, Belgium and Austria.

In those countries, you can open a full-fledged bank account. You get your own IBAN and debit card for a monthly subscription fee.

More recently, Bunq also launched a (nearly) free tier called the Bunq Travel Card. The Travel Card is all about saving on banking fees. It isn’t a true bank account, it just complements your existing bank account.

When sign up to the Travel Card, you can top up an electronic wallet and then spend money using your Bunq Mastercard. The main advantage is that Bunq uses the standard Mastercard exchange rate but doesn’t add any markup fee. Most traditional banks charge you 2 or 3% for foreign transactions.

While Bunq doesn’t offer a credit line, the Travel Card is technically a credit card. It means you can use it for hotel security deposits or car rentals just like a normal credit card. But Bunq still checks whether you have enough money on your Bunq account before processing a transaction.

Bunq is launching the Bunq Travel Card in 22 new countries, not the premium bank accounts. You can get a Travel Card for a one-time fee of €9.99 and there’s no monthly subscription fee.

Here’s the full list of new countries launching today: 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 and non-EU countries Norway and Iceland.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Challenger bank Bunq expands to all EU countries

Fintech startup Bnext has raised a $25 million funding round. The Spanish company is building a banking product and has managed to attract 300,000 active users.

DN Capital, Redalpine and Speedinvest are leading today’s funding round. Existing investors Founders Future and Cometa are also participating. Other investors include Enern, USM and Conexo.

When you open a Bnext account, you get a card and you can upload money to your account. Bnext accounts aren’t technically bank accounts — the company has an e-money license. You can then use your card and spend money anywhere around the world without any foreign transaction fee. You can also freeze and unfreeze your card from the app.

“As of now we'll stick to the e-money license, as our international expansion plans complicate potential passporting of banking licenses. We will first need to understand in which countries makes more sense to get a banking license, and then we'll make a decision,” co-founder and CEO Guillermo Vicandi told me.

You can also connect to your traditional bank accounts from the Bnext app. This way, you can manage your money from a single app.

And Bnext takes this one step further by offering financial products from third-party companies as well. It’s clear that the company wants to build a financial hub, the only finance app that you need.

You can lend money to small and medium businesses and earn interests through October, you can save money using Raisin, you can get a loan, a mortgage, an insurance product, etc. Bnext generates revenue from those partnerships.

While Bnext only operates in Spain for now, the company has managed to attract 300,000 active users. It processes €100 million in transactions every month ($109 million).

Up next, Bnext plans to offer premium plans with more features and individual IBANs. The company also plans to expand to Latin America, starting with Mexico later this year.

Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Bnext raises million for its mobile banking alternative