Nickel (Compte Nickel)
“Can a tobacconist-distributed inclusive bank scale profitably across Europe under a megabank parent?”
Founded2014
HQCharenton-le-Pont, France
FoundersHugues Le Bret
Total raised$10.2M (pre-acquisition)
Latest roundAcquired by BNP Paribas (2017)
Valuation€260M (2017 acquisition price)
IndustryFintech / Neobank
The story
Founded 2014 as Compte Nickel — a no-conditions, tobacconist-distributed current account for France's underbanked. Reached ~500K customers within 3 years before being acquired by BNP Paribas in 2017 for €260M. Since acquisition, has expanded across Europe (Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Germany) as BNP Paribas's inclusive-banking brand, reaching 4.5M+ accounts opened. Operates as its own regulated French payment institution under BNP Paribas Group.
Last 12 months
Product timeline
2014
Launched Compte Nickel — current account opened in 5 minutes at tobacconists in France· banking
2017
Acquired by BNP Paribas for €260M· acquisition
2020
Expansion into Spain· banking
2022
Expansion into Belgium, Portugal, Germany· banking
2024
Dagmar Gaede named CEO of Nickel Germany· banking
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Nickel (Compte Nickel)
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
6 layers disclosed in Nickel (Compte Nickel)’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Nickel (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Card network
in the full report
Open banking
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
7 more providers across 5 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.