David Velez

An international finance career led to a fintech startup

Vélez was born in Medellín and moved with his family to Costa Rica during a period of severe violence in Colombia. He later studied at Stanford and built a finance career spanning Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital before founding Nubank. ^[1][2]

While working in Brazil, Vélez concluded that the country's concentrated banking system left customers with high fees and poor service. After Sequoia ended its planned Brazil initiative, he cofounded Nubank in 2013 with Cristina Junqueira and Edward Wible. ^[2]

Nubank launched with outside institutional backing rather than a family-owned operating business. Sequoia was among the earliest investors, and the company used venture funding to expand from a no-fee credit card into a broader digital-bank platform across Latin America. ^[1][2]

Founder equity converted company growth into personal wealth

Nu Holdings went public in 2021, creating a liquid public-market reference for the value of Vélez's retained founder ownership. As Nubank's customer base and product range expanded, that equity stake became the primary financial mechanism behind his billionaire status. ^[1][2]

Nubank's deposits, loan book and market capitalization are not interchangeable with Vélez's personal net worth. His fortune reflects the value of his founder equity and related investment holdings, built from a company launched with outside venture capital rather than inherited control of an established bank. ^[1][2]