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Nu Holdings Ltd.

Digital BankingFounded 2013
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Leadership History

Nubank: CEO History

2 leaders · 2013 to present

Who is the CEO of Nubank?

David Vélez is the CEO of Nubank, in the role since 2013.

Current CEO
David Vélez (since 2013)
Leaders documented
2
Founded
2013
NameRoleFromToYears in role
David Vélez OsornoFounder, Chairman, and CEO2013Present13
Cristina JunqueiraCo-Founder; CEO, Nu US2013Present13

Company Overview

Nu Holdings is a Cayman Islands-incorporated holding company headquartered in São Paulo that runs Nubank, Latin America's largest digital bank by customers. It ended Q2 2026 with 139 million customers, almost 118 million of them in Brazil, and said it had become the largest digital bank in Mexico with 16 million customers after launching its Mexican bank in August 2026. Its shares trade on the NYSE as NU, with BDRs on Brazil's B3 as ROXO34. The company is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil.

Nubank earns revenue mainly from interest on credit card balances, personal loans, payroll and secured loans, and from yield on the securities it buys with customer deposits. Fee and commission income adds interchange on card spending, late fees, and commissions from insurance, investments and marketplace sales. The model depends on acquiring customers cheaply (largely by word of mouth), serving them through an app at a low monthly cost, and then raising average revenue per active customer (ARPAC, about $15 a month in Q4 2025) by cross-selling credit, savings, investment and insurance products.

David Vélez Osorno

Founder, Chairman, and CEO

2013 – Present

13 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

Started with a single no-fee credit card before expanding into accounts, loans and investments; expanded to Mexico (2019) and Colombia (2020); pursued US charters and a US launch in 2026.

Legacy

Vélez founded Nubank in 2013, raised capital from Sequoia and Kaszek, took the company public on the NYSE in December 2021 and led it to its first annual profit in 2023 and a $1 billion quarterly profit in Q2 2026. He signed the Giving Pledge in 2021 with his wife Mariel Reyes.

Source →

Cristina Junqueira

Co-Founder; CEO, Nu US

2013 – Present

13 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

Moved to Miami to build Nu's US business, secured conditional OCC charter approval in January 2026, and launched US products in September 2026.

Legacy

Co-founded Nubank in 2013 and shaped its early card product and customer-service culture, then took charge of the US expansion.

Source →

Challenges & Strategic Context

Key risks are credit losses as Nubank lends to lower-income and newer borrowers, Brazilian interest-rate and currency swings that affect funding costs and reported dollar results, regulation (including Brazilian rules on bank naming and fintech capital), stronger digital offers from incumbents and Mercado Pago, and execution risk in Mexico, Colombia and the new US business.

Nubank CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who is David Vélez and what is his entrepreneurial story founding Nubank?

David Vélez is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Nu Holdings Ltd. Born in Colombia, his family fled drug cartel violence to Costa Rica; Vélez earned engineering and MBA degrees from Stanford University, worked at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and ran Sequoia Capital's Latin American investments before founding Nubank in 2013 after experiencing humiliating customer service at a Brazilian bank.

What was David Vélez's infamous 2012 Brazilian banking branch experience that inspired Nubank?

In 2012, while moving to São Paulo, Vélez spent four months attempting to open a simple bank account, enduring armed revolving security doors, being forced to lock his bag in a street locker, and waiting hours in line only to be charged $30/month in fees, realizing the Brazilian banking market desperately needed a digital revolution.

Who is Cristina Junqueira and how did she shape Nubank's brand identity?

Cristina Junqueira co-founded Nubank at age 30 after resigning from Itaú Unibanco. Junqueira chose Nubank's signature purple color, coined the brand name 'Nu' (meaning 'naked' or transparent in Portuguese), championed customer-first marketing, and famously made international headlines by working in the office until the day she gave birth to her children.

Who is Edward Wible and what was his technical contribution as Co-Founder?

Edward Wible is an American computer scientist, Stanford graduate, and co-founder of Nubank. Wible served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), architecting Nubank's resilient Clojure/Datomic backend infrastructure and establishing the engineering culture that powers over 100 million users.

Who is Guilherme Lago and what role does he hold as Chief Financial Officer?

Guilherme Lago serves as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Nu Holdings Ltd., having joined in 2019 from Credit Suisse, where he spent over a decade in investment banking; Lago led Nubank's NYSE IPO, capital allocation, and structural profitability roadmap.

What was David Vélez and his wife Mariel Reyes's commitment to The Giving Pledge?

In August 2021, David Vélez and his wife Mariel Reyes signed The Giving Pledge, committing to donate the vast majority of their multi-billion-dollar fortune to philanthropy, specifically establishing the VélezReyes+ foundation to advance education and leadership across Latin America.

Who are the prominent independent directors on Nubank's Board of Directors?

Nubank's board of directors includes prestigious global leaders: Douglas Leone (former Senior Partner of Sequoia Capital), Anita Sands, Daniel Goldberg, Thuan Pham (former CTO of Uber and Coupang), and former Brazilian Central Bank and fintech luminaries.

What is CEO David Vélez's vision for the next decade of Nubank?

David Vélez envisions building the most influential consumer tech company in Latin America, serving over 200 million customers across Latin America and global emerging markets with AI-driven, transparent, and completely automated financial empowerment.

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.