Nubank raises US$500 million from Berkshire Hathaway

São Paulo, June 8th, 2021 — Nubank, the largest independent digital bank in the world, announced it has raised US$500 million from Berkshire Hathaway. This deal is an extension to the Series G funding round, carried out last January.

Nubank, which was recently recognized as one of the most influential companies in the world by TIME and one of the most disrupting ones by CNBC, has revolutionized the financial services industry in Latin America freeing millions of customers of the bureaucracy and abusive fees.

The new equity financing comes as a result of Nubank’s accelerated and sustainable growth. The company is currently the largest digital bank in the world by number of customers having surpassed the 40 million mark.

Nubank, which recently launched a new brand identity to celebrate its 8^th year anniversary, has entered a new phase in the development of its business. It has grown its core product offering of credit card and savings account to a full digital banking platform with a vast portfolio of solutions that includes life insurance, personal loans, investing products, mobile payments and solutions for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

This growth is also reflected internally: since the beginning of the year Nubank has hired over 1,000 people and currently has a workforce from 37 different nationalities.

Nubank operates in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, three of the largest countries in Latin America that represent 60% of the region’s population and GDP. In these geos, banking is one of the most profitable and concentrated industries, where a few players hold between 70-90% of the market and rely heavily on charging high fees to its customers while offering a terrible customer experience.

In this context, Nubank was founded with the mission to empower people to have control over their money through fully digital banking services, putting an end to abusive fees, and offering a human service to its customers. The company has been recognized by its excellence in customer experience and has been able to export it across geos in its internationalization process: today in Mexico, Nubank is one of the largest issuers of new credit cards and registers a  has an NPS of 93.

“As I look back on the past eight years, everything that we have been able to accomplish as a company is just remarkable. When no one thought it was possible, we were convinced that there was room for disruption and innovation and, more importantly, that the customers just deserved better. But we are far from being done: it’s still Day One for us”, explains founder and CEO David Vélez

And then he adds: “In Latam alone, roughly 50% of the population is still unbanked and credit card penetration is on average 21% versus 70% in the US. As we announce this new funding, we are at a true inflection point for Nubank and we are honored to welcome such a world-class investor to support us on our journey”. 

Growth and expansion

In line with the company’s plans for the near future, the proceeds of the round will be focused on supporting Nubank’s growth in three key areas, as well as general corporate purposes.

Firstly, expanding further its product offering by introducing new solutions to the portfolio as well as keeping the accelerated growth-pace in terms of market penetration. Nubank has recently acquired Easynvest, one of leading digital investment platforms in Brazil with more than US$5 billion in assets under custody and 1.6 million customers.

With this partnership, Nubank aims to take the revolution further and democratize access to investments. From a total population of 221 million Brazilians, only 3 million are actively investing, according to B3 (São Paulo Stock Exchange). 

Secondly, investing heavily on international expansion. In Mexico, the company launched its first product over a year ago and has already received 1.5 million applications as well as positioned itself as one of the largest issuers of new credit cards in the country.

To accelerate the growth and escalate local operations, Nubank recently announced it would invest US$135 million in the country.

In Colombia, where the company arrived less than a year ago and still has a product in Beta phase, more than 300,000 Colombians have signed up to the waitlist to become customers. 

Last but not least, Nubank intends to keep attracting world class talent, including recent hires Matt Swann as CTO and Arturo Nuñez as CMO.