Established 11 years ago, Nubank has become the first bank outside of Asia to reach 100 million customers.
Founded in 2013 by Cristina Junqueira, David Vélez and Edward Wible, the bank has 100 million customers across Brazil (92 million), Mexico (seven million) and Columbia (one million). To celebrate the achievement, Nubank has placed customers’ faces from these markets on the Exosphere in Las Vegas.
The faces are created using purple particles, with each particle symbolising one of Nubank’s 100 million customers. Collectively, they represent the diverse array of individual stories that make up Nubank and will be displayed on the Exosphere from 7-14 May.
Junqueira, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Nubank, said: “Being customer-centric has been guiding us since the very beginning. Today, we want our customers to see themselves the way we see them: at the centre of everything.
“In reaching this milestone, we want to focus on the real people and individual stories of empowerment and advance our mission to help improve people’s lives.”
Inspired by the challenges faced by Co-Founder Vélez, who encountered numerous bureaucratic hurdles while attempting to open a bank account, the Colombian entrepreneur conceived an idea to revolutionise the banking experience for Brazilians.
On his journey to accomplish this goal, he found the partners in Junqueira and Wible and It was in a small house, in Brooklin, São Paulo, that the work began, in May 2013.
Nubank’s first product was launched in 2014, which was the credit card Nubank (known as “roxinho”, purple), with no annual fees and fully controlled in the app. During that year, Nubank acquired its initial 6,000 customers.
Since then, the bank has gone on to hit milestone after milestone. In 2016, Nubank reached one million customers in Brazil. Four years later, the bank launched a credit card in Mexico and started operations in Columbia, boasting 30 million customers at the time.
The following year saw the launch of the Nubank Ultravioleta card, which recently entered into the travel segment in partnership with Wise Platform. This is just one product that the bank has released and seen success with, leading up to this significant milestone.
However, the bank isn’t done yet. Expansion in Mexico and Colombia is surpassing the initial growth seen in the bank’s home market. As Nubank broadens its product offerings beyond credit cards and savings, its presence in these markets is poised for substantial growth.
Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank, commented: “In 2013, we had set ourselves the ambitious goal to reach one million customers in five years, which seemed almost impossible at the time.
“In a decade, we have surpassed 100 million, which is a testament to the trust our customers place in us and to the power of a truly customer-centric business model. These 100 million customers have written their stories together with ours, and we want to honour them in a special way.”
