Danish challenger bank Lunar takes on €35 million

Weeks after revealing it was scaling back expenditures, Danish neobank Lunar has tapped its existing shareholders for a €35 million fundraising.

Norwegian tech source Shifter reported Lunar raised the money to grow its business in the Nordics.

There'd been changes already at its Norwegian subsidiary, following the departure of its country lead Eilin Schjetne and communications manager Frode Riis Andersen.

Lunar was forced to make 40 redundancies in January, adding to 50 dismissals in an initial round of cuts last year.

2022 was a pretty dismal year for the company for several reasons, not least a setback for its loans book as Danish regulators have demanded changes to its credit assessment criteria. Lunar's ambitions of Nordic-wide growth were also dented by the collapse of a €132 million acquisition bid for Norwegian counterpart Instabank, after it fell short of "capital requirements" and failed to secure Norwegian regulatory approvals.

Still, the latest fundraise is being sold as a step toward profitability, continuing its roadmap in the region without the benefit of Instabank's operations.

Finextra reports Lunar grew turnover by 500% in the first half of last year, and the platform has at least 500,000 clients across Denmark, Sweden and Norway, including both personal and enterprise bank accounts.