David Vélez (born 1981) is a Colombian

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

, engineer and entrepreneur. He is the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and cofounder of the Brazilian

neobank A neobank is a type of direct bank that operates exclusively using online banking without traditional physical branches. They challenge traditional banks. In contrast to direct banks, in many cases, neobanks do not have their own banking license ...

Nubank Nubank is a Brazilian neobank headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the largest financial technology, fintech bank in Latin America, with around 88 million customers in Brazil and 6 million between Mexico and Colombia and a revenue of $8 bil ...

. As of March 2024, Vélez was ranked #199 on the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

list of ''The Richest People In The World'' with a net worth of $10.8 Billion.

Early life and education

Vélez was born in

Medellín Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...

in 1981, but his family fled cartel violence when he was nine years old and migrated to

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

. Vélez visited a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

school in Costa Rica. In

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, he studied mathematics for a year. Vélez went on to attend

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

studying finance. He graduated in 2012 with an MBA.

Career

After graduating, Vélez worked at

General Atlantic General Atlantic, legal main entity General Atlantic Service Company, L.P., (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. T ...

in Brazil and then got a job as an analyst at financial service company

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

. He also worked at

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

and

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

Nubank

The idea for Nubank came about when Vélez needed to open a bank account in Brazil. To do so, he had to keep his bag in a locker and even then the revolving door locked, trapping him at the entrance to the branch. When he needed a manager, he was kept waiting for a long time and the document requirements were very bureaucratic because he was a foreigner. After he finally managed to open an account, he noticed that everything was very expensive, with high fees for simple services. That's when he thought of creating a bank using technology, taking advantage of smartphones used for other services in Brazil. He founded the

online bank Online banking, also known as internet banking, virtual banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institut ...

Nubank in 2013 together with Brazilian

Cristina Junqueira Cristina Junqueira (born September 1982) is a Brazilian businesswoman who is the co-founder of Nubank. With a background in engineering, she transitioned from management consulting to supervising a credit card portfolio at a major Brazilian bank ...

and the American Edward Wible. The company started with him and his employees as the first customers. The startup went on to receive investments from Sequoia and

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla in 2004. The firm works with early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile technology, artifici ...

. He founded his first Nubank branch abroad at the end of 2017, in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany. In 2019, Nubank had over 12 million customers. In 2023, the number of customers had risen to 90 million people in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.

Personal life

Vélez is married to Peruvian-American entrepreneur Mariel Reyes Milk and has three children. The couple signed

the Giving Pledge The Giving Pledge is a charitable campaign, founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority (i.e. more than 50%) of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has had 236 signatories from 28 ...

in 2021 committing to donate most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Vélez announced in 2021 that he would donate a large part of his wealth to social projects over his life. According to ''

'' magazine, he has an estimated fortune of around billion in February 2024. In September 2024, the

Congress of the Republic of Colombia The Congress of the Republic of Colombia () is the name given to Colombia's bicameral national legislature. The Congress of Colombia consists of the 108-seat Senate, and the 188-seat Chamber of Representatives, Members of both houses are elec ...

honored him with the

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...

Order of Democracy, conferred at the rank of Grand Knight, in recognition of his entrepreneurial achievements.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vélez, David Brazilian businesspeople Colombian businesspeople Colombian expatriates in Brazil Stanford University alumni Morgan Stanley people 1981 births Living people Goldman Sachs people