Nomad, the fintech that allows Brazilians to open a bank account in the United States digitally, has just announced the raising of a $20 million Series A round. The funding was led by venture capital funds monashees and Spark Capital and following by funds Propel, GFC, Abstract, Vast, ONEVC and Globo Ventures. With only nine months of operation, the fintech has already raised more than BRL 140 million.
Nomad presents itself as the fintech for Brazilians who want to have “a life in dollars”. In practice, the company enables the opening of a US bank account guaranteed up to $250,000 by the FDIC. Also, through the app, the user can make international purchases, transfers, bill payments, remittances, investments in global markets, among other transactions.
According to the fintech, one of its differentials is the savings of approximately 10% in common transactions compared to international credit cards: while with a credit card from a Brazilian bank the exchange spread varies from 4% to 7% and the IOF is 6.38%, with the Nomad card, says the fintech, the spread on the commercial dollar is, at most, 2% and the IOF for dollars remittance is only 1.1%.
Currently, Nomad has more than 50,000 accounts open, mostly used for online purchases. The fintech is betting that the economy reopening and the resumption of international travel will boost its growth and it hopes to reach the end of the year with 120,000 accounts.
Nomad’s CEO, Lucas Vargas, says that Brazil lacked a complete and simple solution “for a life in dollars.” “With Nomad you no longer have to worry about carrying money in your pocket while traveling, to understand the fees and taxes of each operation or find a smart and safe way to invest in global markets,” he argues.
Besides the banking solutions, the fintech also offers a kind of curation of international investments, suggesting assets for each risk profile and thematic portfolios, such as cryptocurrencies or ESG, for example, and soon should launch a trading platform.
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Behind Nomad are experienced names in the innovation and technology market: Vargas led Grupo ZAP for eight years, Patrick Sigrist is one of the founders of iFood, and Eduardo Haber has a long career in the financial sector.
The founders say that Series A will be invested in developing new products for the platform and in expanding the team, currently numbering 75 employees, to 150 professionals, especially in the areas of technology and business.
