- Nubank’s CEO and co-founder announced on Thursday a $400 million Series G round;
- The seventh round of funding places Nubank among the top five financial institutions in Latin America, ahead of giants such as Banco do Brasil, with a $25 billion valuation;
- Nubank will use the funds to expand its business in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, in addition to launching new services such as corporate credit cards, boosting personal credit and expanding its Easynvest brokerage unit.
Nubank raised $400 million in its seventh round of funding, a contribution that valued the fintech among the top five financial institutions in Latin America, said its CEO and co-founder David Velez in an interview.
This means that Nubank would stand behind Itaú Unibanco, Bradesco, Santander Brasil and XP, according to the market capitalization of the previous day.
This new round has valued Nubank at about $25 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter, more than doubling its valuation since the last round in July 2019. Such a value would put it ahead Banco do Brasil and BTG Pactual, for instance.
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Nubank declined to comment.
Despite the fact that Nubank’s loan portfolio is equivalent to only 1.5% of that held by Itaú Unibanco, the fintech reached a figure equal to half the market value of the largest Brazilian bank.
Nubank was founded in 2013 in Brazil as a purple credit card issuer with no annual fee. Since then, it has won 34 million customers, launched new products and expanded throughout Latin America. Over the past seven years, it has raised $1.2 billion in several rounds of fundraising with venture capital funds.
Singapore’s GIC, Whale Rock and Invesco led the new round. Previous investors like Sequoia, Tencent, Dragoneer and Ribbit also participated.
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Nubank will use the funds to expand its business in Brazil and also in Mexico and Colombia, said Velez, a Colombian who graduated from Stanford University and who co-founded Nubank after negative experiences with Brazilian banks as an expatriate in São Paulo. Nubank launched operations in both countries in 2020 and is still scaling its business there.
It also plans to launch new services, such as corporate credit cards, boost personal credit and expand its Easynvest brokerage unit, mainly with products aimed at middle-class people.
“2021 is the year we will seek to grow the customer base and diversify products,” said Velez. “With more products, we will become a complete solution for customers.”
Translated by LABS
