Ali Niknam (born December 12, 1982) is a Dutch entrepreneur, book author, founder of TransIP, CEO and founder of

bunq Bunq B.V. (, ; stylized in all lowercase), is a fintech and neobank licensed in the Netherlands and operating within 30 European countries. It is headquartered in Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Ali Niknam, the founder ...

. In 2022, he gained public attention for leading bunq in a landmark legal battle against the Dutch Central Bank over the use of artificial intelligence in anti-money laundering compliance.

Biography

Ali Niknam was born in an Iranian family on December 12, 1982, in

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places *Detroit–Windsor, Michigan-Ontario, USA-Canada, North America; a cross-border metropolitan region Australia New South Wales *Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area Queen ...

, Ontario, Canada. When he was 7 years old, the family moved to Gouda, Netherlands. He graduated from secondary school at the Coornhert Gymnasium in Gouda and in 2007 received a bachelor's degree in technical informatics from the

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

. In 2003, during university years, Niknam founded TransIP, a company that specialized in domain name registration and

web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web ho ...

. In 2014, he handed over the management of the company and in 2019, after the merging with the Belgian company Combell, TransIP was renamed team.blue where he remained a board member. In 2007, with his two partners, he founded a data center company The Datacenter Group. As of 2018 he remained a shareholder in the company at least. In 2011, Niknam wrote a book called ''Ondernemers hebben nooit geluk'' (Entrepreneurs are never lucky) covering his entrepreneurship experience. In 2022, together with Robert Vis and Joris Beckers, he founded the People for People Foundation, which supported people affected by the

Russian-Ukrainian war The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. Together, the three men donate €500 thousand per year.

bunq

In 2012, Niknam launched a mobile bank named

in which he invested €98.7 million. In May 2022, bunq announced that they had acquired the Belgium-based fintech organisation Tricount, which Niknam stated aligns with the values of bunq.Dutch challenger Bunq becomes EU’s second largest neobank with Tricount acquisition
/ref> This acquisition saw Niknam's bank become the second largest neobank in the European Union. In October 2022, Niknam led the

neobank A neobank is a type of direct bank that operates exclusively using online banking without traditional physical branches. They challenge traditional banks. In contrast to direct banks, in many cases, neobanks do not have their own banking license ...

in a legal dispute against the

Dutch Central Bank De Nederlandsche Bank (, , abbr. DNB) is the national central bank for the Netherlands within the Eurosystem. It was the Dutch central bank from 1814 to 1998, issuing the guilder. Since 2014, it has also been the country's national competent auth ...

(DNB) concerning the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. The DNB had prohibited bunq from employing AI-driven methods for customer screening, asserting that such practices did not align with existing AML regulations. Challenging this stance, bunq argued that AI and machine learning technologies could enhance the effectiveness of AML measures. The Dutch court ruled in favor of bunq, concluding that the Dutch Central Bank had not sufficiently demonstrated that bunq's methodologies were non-compliant with AML laws. The court also stated that bunq needed to improve its procedures for verifying customers' sources of income, particularly for politically exposed persons. Following the ruling, Niknam referred to the case as significant for the broader neobank sector. In 2023, bunq was valued at €1.65bn after a new funding round.

References

{{Reflist Living people 1982 births Canadian people of Iranian descent Canadian emigrants to the Netherlands Dutch company founders Dutch billionaires Dutch people of Iranian descent