David Velez's Nubank, launched to disrupt Brazil’s banking industry, now boasts over 100 million customers and briefly surpassed Itau Unibanco's market value. Velez, a Colombia native, is also Latin America’s wealthiest tech entrepreneur with a net worth of about $11.8 B.
“Come up with one really good idea and stick with it for a very long time,” he said, citing the late Charlie Munger. Since launching in 2013, Nubank now counts more than half of the adult population of Brazil as clients and is quickly moving into secured lending, insurance, small-business services and building a market place for retail on its app. As it now tries to replicate its success in Mexico and Colombia, Velez’s ambitions go far beyond those markets. That is to disrupt global financial services.