Nubank

Nubank, which operates as Nu outside Brazil and is listed as Nu Holdings Ltd., is a digital bank headquartered in São Paulo. David Vélez founded it in 2013 with Cristina Junqueira, who had run a large card unit at Itaú, and software engineer Edward Wible. Vélez had been a partner at Sequoia Capital from 2011 to 2013, where he started the firm's Latin America practice. Nubank began with a no-annual-fee Mastercard managed entirely in a mobile app, then added a digital account, personal loans, investments and insurance, and expanded to Mexico and Colombia.

In September 2014 Nubank announced a $14.3 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital, the firm's first investment in a Brazilian startup, with Kaszek Ventures and Nicolas Berggruen participating. In June 2015 Tiger Global Management led a $30 million Series B with Sequoia, Kaszek Ventures and QED Investors, bringing total funding to $46.3 million. Tencent bought a $180 million minority stake in October 2018. The F-1 prospectus refers to a Series G preferred round in January 2021 and a Series G-1 round later that year. Berkshire Hathaway invested a total of $1 billion before and after the IPO. Other backers named by Wikipedia include Founders Fund, DST Global and Goldman Sachs.

Nubank listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NU on December 9, 2021. Shares rose 15% on the first day, valuing the company at $45 billion. The prospectus showed Sequoia-affiliated entities holding 25.0% of Class A shares before the offering, DST-affiliated entities 13.1%, Tencent 8.9% and a Tiger Global fund 7.9%, while the co-founders kept control through Class B shares. Revenue for the first nine months of 2021 was $1.06 billion. For 2025 the company reported 131 million customers, record fourth-quarter revenue of $4.9 billion and quarterly net income of $895 million. In January 2026 it received conditional approval from the OCC for a US national bank.

Nubank is one of the clearest venture outcomes from Latin America. Sequoia backed a former partner at the Series A and still held about a quarter of Class A shares at the IPO, eight years later. Kaszek Ventures and QED Investors entered in the first two rounds, and Tiger Global led the Series B. Large crossover holders such as DST Global, Tencent and Berkshire Hathaway joined in the later private rounds before the public listing.