European fintech remains a vital training ground for the region’s next generation of founders — and Berlin-based N26 is no exception.
Founded in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal, N26 has fast become one of Europe’s largest neobanks, raising over $1.5bn from investors such as Dragoneer, Earlybird, and Coatue. The neobank has over 4 million customers across 24 European countries, including France, Spain and Germany.
According to data released earlier this week by Accel and Dealroom, at least 34 startups have spun out from N26, cementing its status as a burgeoning founder factory.
We tracked down the startups founded by ex-N26 employees in 2024 and 2025. If we’ve missed any, please reach out.
Alex Goddijn, Fern Labs
Role at N26: Alex Goddijin was at N26 between June 2018 and February 2020, where he was a software engineer at the neobank.
New venture: Fern Labs lets companies embed AI agents to help automate difficult or open-ended processes, its CEO Ash Edwarrds previously told Sifted. The London-based startup raised $3m in pre-seed funding led by UK VC Air Street Capital and was founded last year.
Alexander Weber, stealth
Role at N26: A close to nine-year veteran at N26, Alexander Weber joined in 2014 as one of its first employees and left in 2023 as its chief growth officer.
New venture: According to his LinkedIn, the former N26 exec is currently working on a healthtech startup in stealth, which aims to “empower 100 million people to take control of their health proactively” and transform “optimal health from an exception into the norm.”
Alexander Walsh, Recursion
Role at N26: Alexander Walsh was a strategy and operations manager at N26 between 2019 and 2020.
New venture: The former N26 employee founded AI startup Recursion in March last year. Recursion uses artificial intelligence to unify datasets to deliver customer insights for companies.
Evgeny Krapivin, Hiring Method
Role at N26: Evgeny Krapivin worked as a software engineer at N26 between 2019 and 2023.
New venture: Last summer, Krapivin founded Hiring Method, an AI-powered applicant tracking system for recruiters and hiring managers which aims to speed up the hiring process through tools such as CV scoring and events scheduling.
John Arts, Emerge Data and Rita Data
Role at N26: John Arts was a growth analyst at N26 for seven months between October 2017 and April 2018.
New venture: Arts founded Rita Data, a data marketplace that was acquired last August. He founded Emerge Data earlier this year, which provides a solution to track online customer behaviors on competitors’ websites and apps.
Prokopis Gryllos, Emblematic AI
Role at N26: Prokopis Gryllos was a senior data scientist at N26 between July 2020 and June 2021. During his time at the neobank, he built a loan-to-value forecasting product that, he claims “became the cornerstone for all marketing budget allocations” on his LinkedIn.
New venture: Gryllos founded Emblematic AI last year, which builds AI agents for accounting teams including tools for transaction categorisation, internal audits and reconciliations.
“Finance teams are overwhelmed by tedious, repetitive workflows that pull them away from strategic, high-impact work,” he says. Emblematic is already revenue-making and is currently raising a pre-seed round.
Omkar Pimple, Myracle and stealth startup
Role at N26: Omkar Pimple was at N26 for close to four years, where he held engineering roles and led its mobile function before departing in October 2020.
“I’ve been an entrepreneur since the age of 16 with several side projects,” Pimple told Sifted. “At N26, I got the opportunity to solve many fuzzy cross-functional problems across tech, product, design, and operations, which helped me deeply understand the growth pains for a fast-growing tech-driven organisation.”
New venture: Pimple is the founder of two companies. In 2020, the former N26 employee founded and bootstrapped edtech Myracle. Last September, he cofounded another startup currently in stealth in the AI software quality management space.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/n26-founder-factory/
