As we noticed in elements 1 and a pair of of this EC-1, by mid-2013, Nubank CEO David Velez had most of what he wanted to get began. He’d introduced on two co-founders, assembled bold engineering and operations groups, raised $2 million in seed funding from Sequoia and Kaszek, rented a tiny workplace in São Paulo, and was armed with a mission to ship the form of banking companies that clients in a market as giant and profitable as Brazil’s ought to count on.
Regardless of being named Nubank, nevertheless, the startup couldn’t truly be a financial institution: Brazil’s legal guidelines made it unlawful on the time for a foreigner-run firm to function a financial institution. That restriction required the staff to develop an creative product technique to discover a foothold available in the market whereas they waited for a license straight from the nation’s president.
Nubank was so adamant about differentiating itself from different banks that it selected Barney purple for its model shade and first bank card.
Nubank due to this fact pursued a bank card as its first providing, however it needed to race towards a clock counting rapidly right down to zero. On the time, Brazil didn’t have possession restrictions on this product phase prefer it did with banking, however new guidelines had been coming into power in just some months in Could 2014 that might block an organization like Nubank from launching.
The corporate wanted to execute quickly over the following eight months if it needed to be grandfathered into the present rules. The pace of operations was frantic to say the least, and the corporate would go on to work even sooner, in the end propelling itself into the stratosphere of fintech startups.
Full religion in credit score
It’s simple to imagine that the title Nubank refers to “new financial institution,” however that’s probably not what the founders had been going for. The phrase “nu” in Portuguese means “bare,” and Velez and his staff needed the title to replicate their imaginative and prescient: To construct a Twenty first-Century financial institution with none of the shackles imposed by the normal banks in Brazil.
The staff needed to supply companies to as many individuals as doable, as there’s a large wealth hole in Brazil, the place the minimal wage is round $200 a month.
Launching with only a bank card was each a strategic and sensible enterprise resolution. Bank cards had been extensively used within the nation, and everybody understood how they labored. Moreover, you may solely use bank cards to buy on-line in Brazil, as a result of debit playing cards weren’t accepted.
