Nubank acquires US company Cognitect, the team behind Clojure and Datomic

São Paulo, July 23 2020 – Nubank, the leading Latin American digital bank, has just announced the acquisition of Cognitect, the US-based software consultancy behind the Clojure programming language and the Datomic database.

As a result of this deal, Nubank will welcome on its team some of the most experienced Clojure engineers in the world who will play a fundamental role in the growth and scalability of its products and overall business. This is the digital bank’s second M&A transaction, having acquired the Brazilian software consultancy Plataformatec in early 2020. 

“Nubank, at its core, is a tech company and we are true believers that technology can have a positive impact on people’s lives. We have a strong commitment to democratizing the access to financial services in Latin America and, by joining forces with Cognitect, we will be able to further enhance our products to give people control over their money through financial services that are simple, transparent and human”, claims David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank. 

Born 100% digital and with a product portfolio that includes a credit card with no annual fee, as well as a digital account for individuals and SMEs, and personal loans, in only 7 years Nubank became the sixth-largest financial institution in Brazil and recently surpassed the 25 million customer mark.

The company is the largest independent digital bank in the world. Yet it was Nubank’s mission that attracted the founders of Cognitect the most:

“We have always used technology to solve problems, but with Nubank we are looking forward to an even more direct connection between the systems we build and their impact on millions of people. After partnering with Nubank for the past 6 years, we are very excited to be able to contribute on a full-time basis with Nubank’s mission to fight complexity and empower people, reinventing financial services in the process”, explains Justin Gehtland, CEO and co-founder of Cognitect.

The relationship dates back to 2014 when Nubank had a handful of employees developing its first product. Today, Nubank has +2,700 employees representing 30 different nationalities, within four talent hubs around the globe in Sao Paulo, Berlin, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires. Nubank is also the largest company to adopt Clojure at scale.

“This deal is a fundamental step in Nubank’s growth as it will help us further strengthen our team, improve our products, and expand our operations in a healthy and sustainable manner. As a customer-centric technology company, we view our custom software development capabilities as core to our long term success.  We aim to have the most talented technical team in the market in order to reinvent and develop the best financial services and products for our customers”, explains Edward Wible, co-founder and CTO of Nubank.

Cognitect brings deep expertise in remote work and opens the US talent market for Nubank.  The company continues with its efforts to hire engineers and other professionals across all geographies, having recently grown the engineering team to ~600 professionals globally.

As part of this deal, Nubank will now be a key corporate sponsor of Clojure. “We fully commit to not only maintaining Clojure as an open-source language, but also contributing to its development and supporting the broader ecosystem. For those who currently use Clojure, nothing will change”, ensures Wible.

Rich Hickey will remain at the helm of Clojure, which remains independent, and will continue to manage Clojure’s technical direction. Nubank will assume Cognitect’s role as sponsor for Clojure-related events around the world.

Nubank is committed to continuing Datomic without disruption for all customers, as Datomic product offerings and customer relationships remain. Stuart Halloway and Rich Hickey will continue to set the development roadmap. Cognitect will keep on offering professional services and supporting Datomic customers.

Considered the largest independent neobank in the world, Nubank was founded in Brazil 7 years ago and currently has 25 million clients. The fintech launched its first product in 2014, a no-fee credit card that is fully managed by a mobile app and currently has more than 13 million customers. In 2017, Nubank launched its proprietary loyalty rewards program (“Nubank Rewards”), as well as a digital account which is currently used by more than 17 million people in Brazil. In 2019, the company began testing its personal loan product and its account for SMBs. During this year, Nubank started its international expansion and, currently, it has offices in São Paulo (Brazil), Mexico City (Mexico), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Berlin (Germany).  More information: www.nubank.com.br.