David Vélez
Co-founder and CEO of Nubank, the world’s largest digital bank by customer count. A former Sequoia Capital partner who turned Brazilian banking upside down.
Track record
Nubank
Co-founded Nubank in Brazil in 2013, building it from a challenger credit-card startup into the world’s largest digital bank by number of customers, with operations across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia and a listing on the NYSE.
Sequoia Capital background
Before founding Nubank, Vélez worked as a partner at Sequoia Capital, giving him a rare vantage point on global venture practice before applying it to a Latin American market that, at the time, had comparatively little institutional VC activity.
A watched investor
Nubank’s scale and Vélez’s Sequoia background have made him one of the most closely watched individual investors in the region, whether backing founders personally or through philanthropy-linked vehicles.
How he invests
Vélez’s public investing activity is most visibly tied to fintech and financial-inclusion themes, a natural extension of Nubank’s own mission — though as with most active operator-investors, a complete, current portfolio is not comprehensively disclosed.
His combination of operating experience at massive scale and prior institutional VC training (via Sequoia) makes his public commentary on building and scaling Latin American startups a frequently cited reference point, independent of any specific deal.