Nubank

Nubank is a Brazilian neobank headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the largest fintech bank in Latin America, with 80.4 million customers in Brazil and 1.51 million between Mexico and Colombia and a revenue of $1.69B. At its IPO in December 2021, Nubank was valued at $45 billion.

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, 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 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. In July of the same year, the company also acquired Cognitect, responsible for Datomic and the Clojure programming language. In September 2020, Nubank acquired Easynvest, an investment broker also from Brazil, for an undisclosed amount.

In November 2020, Nubank announced that the company would begin operations in Colombia. 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 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% stake of company stock ($1.3 billion). Before and after the IPO, Berkshire Hathaway invested a total of $1 billion in Nubank stock.

In 2022, Forbes ranked Nubank #1 out of the fifteen best Brazilian banks.

In October 2023, it was announced that the bank would use generative artificial intelligence to offer credit to customers. It was announced that the AI would function as a virtual assistant that would also give tips on how to use a credit card. It was developed using OpenAI's GPT-4 and other bank intelligence systems.

Also in October 2023, the bank announced that it had requested, through its subsidiary Nu México, a license to operate as a bank in Mexico, with the aim of increasing its portfolio in the country. It also began the gradual offer of payroll loans for INSS retirees and pensioners.

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, Founders Fund, Kaszek Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Goldman Sachs, Berkshire Hathaway, QED Investors and DST Global.