A mines are one of the most important structural motifs in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and organic materials 1,2 . Alkylation and reductive amination reactions are still commonly used to prepare and modify amines, and new methods derived from reductive amination, such as the borrowing hydrogen 3 strategy, have been reported [4][5][6][7] . Nevertheless, the most significant development in amine synthesis has been transition-metal-catalysed C-N coupling of aryl electrophiles (halides and pseudo halides) with amine nucleophiles [8][9][10][11] (Fig. 1a). The C-N coupling of alkyl electrophiles, however, is largely under-developed (Fig. 1a). A perceived difficulty is β -hydrogen elimination from a metal alkyl intermediate originated from oxidative addition of the alkyl electrophile, which has posed considerable challenges in analogous C-C crosscoupling of alkyl electrophiles [12][13][14] . Moreover, the product-yielding C(sp 3 )-N reductive elimination step is rarely demonstrated 15 . A notable exception is the light-induced, copper-catalysed C-N coupling of alkyl halides recently developed [16][17][18] . Nevertheless, the scope of amine nucleophiles is limited to carbazoles 16,18 and amides 17,19 . Alternative, formal C-N coupling of alkyl electrophiles via the addition of alkyl radicals to nitroarenes has been reported 20,21 .The group of Baran has recently trailblazed the use of redox-active esters derived from alkyl carboxylic acids as superior surrogates of alkyl halides in decarboxylative C-C cross-coupling reactions [22][23][24] . Extension to a decarboxylative carbon-heteroatom, particularly C-B bond formation has also been reported 19,[25][26][27][28][29] . The key attributes of alkyl carboxylic acids 30,31 are their unparalleled availability, stability and non-toxic nature, which are in stark contrast with alkyl halides, ketones and aldehydes. While several precedents of decarboxylative imidation 32 and amination 19,33 are known, they are limited to a narrow scope of very special substrates or intramolecular reactions. A general metal-catalysed decarboxylative C-N coupling of redox-active esters with anilines will provide valuable methodology for the synthesis of alkylated anilines (Fig. 1b), which requires alkyl halides and carbonyl compounds 6 as starting reagents using the currently standard methods of alkylation and reductive amination, respectively. Further foreseen advantages of such a decarboxylative amination include applicability to bulky primary and secondary alkyl groups and immunity to over-alkylation, both of which are major limitations of direct alkylation (Fig. 1b). Despite its conceptual simplicity and resemblance to decarboxylative C-C coupling, the intermolecular decarboxylative C-N coupling of redoxactive esters poses significant hurdles. The activation principle of redox-active esters originates from amide-bond synthesis; thus, amide formation can compete when amine nucleophiles are used. Moreover, decarboxylative C-C coupling reactions of redox-active esters were, until now, all init...