Maximilian Tayenthal co-founded N26 with Valentin Stalf in 2013. The company was founded in Berlin as Papayer GmbH. In February 2014 it offered a prepaid Mastercard for teenagers, and in June 2014 it raised a seed round of €2 million and took the name Number26.
A private beta opened in October 2014. In 2016 the bank won a BaFin licence and rebranded as N26. In October 2021 a Series E of $900 million led by Third Point and Coatue valued the company at $9 billion.
The years after that brought pressure. In 2021 BaFin fined the bank €4.25 million and capped new customers at 50,000 a month. N26 left the US in 2022 and faced an Italian bar on new customers that year.
Tayenthal was co-CEO and COO until December 2025, after Stalf stepped down as CEO earlier in 2025. Mike Dargan took over as CEO in April 2026.