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Ali Niknam

Founder & CEO, bunq B.V.

Search every verified Ali Niknam interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Ali Niknam, founder and CEO of bunq, gave two interviews in September 2026. In a Dutch-language appearance, he said he is 44 years old but feels 144, and discussed the personal toll of building multiple billion-euro companies. He stated that an image of him has been "deliberately created" by some people that he does not recognize, and that he does not have a bank account with nine zeros, holding instead a share in a company whose value is not directly spendable. He also compared public scrutiny to speed cameras placed unevenly on two highways, suggesting that disproportionate attention creates a distorted picture. In a separate interview at bunq's Amsterdam office, Niknam discussed his background, including growing up in Gouda, coding at age nine, investing in stocks at twelve, and starting his first business at sixteen. He said he has never worked for money and that his goal was never to get rich. He described selling his second company to keep bunq alive, framing it as a logical decision because he wants his companies to become independent of him. He also said that during his youth he experienced racism as a non-white person in a predominantly white environment, and that this led him to notice that not everyone gets the same opportunities. He advised young people to find their own life's path, saying that if they do, "there is no going wrong."

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“I think the answer is yes, I hope the answer is yes. That image that arises in the outside world is, I think, you know, we have the A4 and the A44, two highways in the Netherlands, right? If you place 100 speed cameras on the A4 and you place one on the A44, then after a month you look and say: hey, there are 100 times as many speeders on the A4. What is it with those people who drive on the A4? Why do they all drive”

“What I find annoying is that an image has been deliberately created by some people of me that I don't recognize myself in. That I find annoying. Especially when the people around me also suffer from it. It's not as if I have a bank account somewhere with nine zeros in it. I have a share in a company and what it's worth is what it's worth. But you can't buy a sandwich with it at Albert Heijn. So no. And all kinds of s”

“So everything has an origin right. So if we look back then during my youth I was a non-white person in a very white environment and there was and unfortunately still is a lot of racism in this country and so I noticed that although on paper the rules are the same not everybody gets the same opportunities but I also saw the opportunity in that because I noticed that a lot of really good people were just not being offe”

“I think up until the age of 16 forbid any type of electronic device. I would forbid any meddling by parents. I would have kids in the same room in larger groups trying to figure stuff out. Whatever this stuff is, it doesn't really matter whether it's someone likes history, someone likes math, someone likes language, all good. Try to find where your natural curiosity or your natural character brings you. Understand th”

“The consequence is that you effectively end up with just a handful of gigantic players who are compliance machines. As a result their service is not necessarily being user-oriented or consumer-friendly.”

“Contrary to many of our peers, we didn't have a free subscription plan. At the time we started with a paid plan, which meant that people only used us who actually thought, 'Okay, this is useful. I need it.' Because once you put a price on something, it's worth something, right? Free, I mean, you can hand out free stuff all day, every day. Doesn't mean somebody actually appreciates the product. And in doing so, we put”

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