Nubank is a Brazilian
neobank and the largest
fintech bank in
Latin America. Its headquarters are located in
São Paulo, Brazil. The company also has engineering offices in
Berlin,
Germany,
Buenos Aires,
Argentina, and an office in
Mexico City,
Mexico.
In December 09, 2021, Nubank officially launched its public
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
offering on the
NYSE, valuing the company at US$45 billion, making it the most valuable digital neobank.
, Nubank has over 52.4 million customers in
Brazil and 1.51 million distributed in
Mexico and
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
.
History
Nubank was founded in 2013 by Colombian
David Vélez, Brazilian
Cristina Junqueira and American
Edward Wible. The first transaction with a Nubank card was made on April 1, 2014. Four years later, Nubank became a
unicorn startup with its valuation of US$1 billion.
In the company's first two years of existence, it raised 600 million
Brazilian reais. In September 2014, Nubank raised $14.3 million from
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total a ...
, along with Kaszek Ventures and
Nicolas Berggruen. Nubank launched its first financial product, an international
Mastercard credit card that has no
annuity fees and can be completely managed through a
mobile app, and then in June 2015, Nubank led a series B round of investment with
Tiger Global Management, along with existing backers Sequoia Capital, Kaszek Ventures and QED Investors.
In 2017, Nubank launched its loyalty program, Nubank Rewards. The program's points (which never expire) can be redeemed for a product catalogue or discounts on services, travel and entertainment. Customers can try the program for free for 30 days, after which they will be charged a fee in order to further use it. In the same year, it also launched its digital account, NuConta.
In October 2018,
Tencent bought a minority stake of Nubank worth $180 million ($90 million in capital increase, $90 million in shares). In late 2018, it began offering payments through debit. In 2018, after launching its new credit card design, Nubank was featured in the
Guinness Book of Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
for making the world's largest
unboxing. In early 2019, the fintech started testing personal loans with a few of its digital account users. In May 2019, the company announced it would begin operations in Mexico through a subsidiary called Nu. This was the first time Nubank offered its services and products outside of Brazil.
In January 2020, Nubank made its first acquisition with the purchase of Plataformatec, a company that specialized in software engineering and agile methodologies, thus continuing its growth by including the team of 50 developers of Platformatec. In July of the same year, the company also acquired Cognitect, responsible for
Datomic and the
Clojure programming language. In September 2020, Nubank acquired
Easyinvest, an investment broker also from Brazil, for an undisclosed amount.
In November 2020, Nubank announced that the company would begin operations in
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
. In April 2021, Edward Wible, who was
CTO of the company for 8 years, left his position "to contribute more directly to the construction of the systems and infrastructure of the company" as the Director of Technological Platforms.
The bank completed an
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in December 2021.
After the IPO, Nubank's cofounder
Cristina Junqueira became the second woman in Brazil to reach the self-made billionaire status, since she held 2.9% of the stocks ($1.3 billion). Before and after the IPO,
Berkshire Hathaway invested a total of $1 billion dollars in Nubank's stocks.
In 2022, Nubank leads among the best banks of Brazil, by
Forbes. The ranking, compiled by Forbes USA, evaluates issues such as customer satisfaction, reliability, digitalization, customer service, and financial advice.
Description
Among the company's products are NuConta (a digital account), an international credit card, both without fees, personal loans, life insurance and investments. The company's differentiating factor is to offer a
credit card which is controlled completely through the means of a
mobile app. The app allows its users to track transactions in real time, block their respective
credit card, apply for a limit raise and contact customer support.
Some of Nubank's investors are
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total a ...
,
Founders Fund,
Kaszek Ventures,
Tiger Global Management,
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...
,
Berkshire Hathaway, QED Investors and
DST Global.
References
External links
*
{{Finance links
, name = Nu Group Ltd.
, symbol = NU
, reuters = NU.N
, bloomberg = NU:US
, sec_cik = 1691493
, yahoo = NU
, google = NU:NYSE
Financial services companies of Brazil
Brazilian brands
Companies based in São Paulo
Online banks
Neobanks
2021 initial public offerings
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange