Nubank

History

Nubank was founded in 2013 by Colombian David Vélez to disrupt the banking industry in Brazil. After developing a business plan, Vélez raised a seed round from Sequoia Capital with the intention of launching a credit card company that would expand into other financial services. On advice from his investors, he recruited Brazilian Cristina Junqueira and American Edward Wible. In 2018, 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 and an additional $14.3 million from Sequoia Capital, along with Kaszek Ventures and Nicolas Berggruen. Nubank launched its first financial product, an international Mastercard credit card without annual fees that can be completely managed through a mobile app. The first transaction with a Nubank card was made on April 1, 2014. In June 2015, Tiger Global Management led Nubank's Series B, along with existing backers Sequoia Capital, Kaszek Ventures and QED Investors.

In 2017, Nubank launched its loyalty program, Nubank Rewards. The program's points 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.