David Velez was born in Colombia, in the city of Medellín. He lived in that city until he was eight years old, at which point he would move to Costa Rica. David’s father had eleven siblings, and each of them has his own business. This implanted early on in him the need to undertake and not have your own boss.
At the age of 18, he left the country to study at Stanford University in finance school, obtaining the title of financial engineer. During his four years of study in California, he always imagined getting that magical idea from a start-up like Google or Amazon that would completely change the market. Nothing came to mind in that instant.
At that moment he decided to change his focus and start working in the financial market. He worked as an analyst in New York with Morgan Stanley, where he worked for two years. In 2007 he began working for General Atlantic, a firm that was beginning to make its first investments in Brazil with an investment of $ 500 million, by then the largest investment by an American fund. This is how Brazil enters the life of David Vélez.
General Atlantic sent David to Sao Paulo to create his office and investigate available investment opportunities. He would quit his job so he could go back to Stanford and graduate. Two years later he would return to Sequoia Capital, which was also looking for new businesses in Brazil, and found an interesting situation.
Most of the country’s companies did not have many engineers studying, which meant that there was no environment for economic development to take place. Those looking for technological innovations were usually American companies, which were made by people used to the advantages (and disadvantages) of the first world. This meant that he had nothing good to prove to his bosses.
Except he could. The amount of bureaucracy that existed in the Brazilian banking sector, in addition to having one of the highest interest rates in the world, was a problem to which David had the solution. I spend years researching, obtaining information from the largest banking companies to the consumer service standards of other companies.
He presented his plan to Sequoia Capital and Kaszek Ventures, and managed to obtain 2 million dollars to start his investment. In 2013 he recruited two employees, and Nubank was founded in a small house located in Sao Paulo. September of the following year leads to the public launch of the Nubank credit card. Now, the digital bank has started its expansion through Latin America.
Despite his great successes in Brazil, David has not entirely forgotten his homeland. Recently he announced that Nubank will start operations in Colombia.
His company, Nubank, has received several accolades over the years for his efforts. These include: The most innovative company in Latin America by Latam Founders, the most innovative application by the App Store, I
