N26 Co-Founder Pledges Shares for Bank Loan from Schelhammer Capital Bank

For a bank loan from Schelhammer Capital Bank, N26 founder Maximilian Tayenthal wants to borrow almost two percent of the shares in the Berlin neobank. A step that is rarely made public in startups. What is known?

Maximilian Tayenthal gets a loan. For this reason, the N26 co-founder will pledge part of his shares in the neobank and will receive a loan from the Austrian private bank Schelhammer Capital Bank AG in return, according to the invitation to an “extraordinary general meeting” in early July. The step should be approved for him at the appointment. It is about 3,000 shares and thus about two percent of the shares of N26.

This process is particularly common for listed companies. A prominent example: The entrepreneur Elon Musk, who borrowed part of his shares in the carmaker Tesla to get loans. In the case of privately held startups, however, such processes usually do not become public. Upon request, N26 states: “The pledging of the shares serves to optimize the capital structure in a private company and has nothing to do with the activities of N26.”

What is the value of the block of shares?

It is obvious that the bank manager would use the money to invest in other start-ups or make other investments – he is one of the most active German business angels. His portfolio includes Aitme, a startup that develops robots for kitchens, the banking startup Upvest and the investment app Beatvest. The 42-year-old was also an early investor in the now insolvent pension app Vantik – he also invested in a Berlin music club. 22 investments are registered for his company Tayenthal Ventures UG.

The interesting question is what loan sum Tayenthal will receive from the bank for the shares. On paper, the block of shares would have been worth roughly $180 million in the last round of funding. According to the company, the company was valued at nine billion dollars at the time. But a few weeks ago there were reports from Financial Timesthat N26 investor Allianz X is looking for buyers for part of its N26 shares – at a valuation of roughly three billion dollars. In this case, the value of the shares would be around 60 million dollars. However, the actual value that the bank accepts as security is likely to be even lower.

Overall, Tayenthal still owns around 9.5 percent of the company – due to so-called liquidation preferences, however, later lenders should see their money in the event of an IPO or sale before the founders and early investors receive their profits.