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Nu Holdings runs Nubank, a digital bank that serves tens of millions of customers, mostly in Latin America, through a phone app instead of physical branches.
Nubank is a bank that lives almost entirely in your phone. It started in Brazil by handing people a purple credit card and an app, with no branches and no paperwork, and it grew into one of the largest digital banks in the world. Its customers are mostly ordinary people who had been poorly served or outright shut out by Brazil's big traditional banks, which charged high fees and made opening an account a hassle.
The core products are simple: a credit card with no annual fee, a checking account with a debit card, and instant payments. Nubank makes money in two main ways. First, it earns interest and fees when customers borrow on their credit cards and personal loans. Second, it collects a small cut every time a card is swiped or tapped, paid by the merchant, not the customer. It also sells insurance and investment products. The pitch to customers is basically: no fees, everything on your phone, and service that doesn't treat you like a nuisance. Its home market is Brazil, where it has built a giant customer base, but it has been expanding into Mexico and Colombia. The big risk is that banking is a regulated, capital-hungry business: Nubank has to fund its lending, and if many borrowers default at once, that hurts. It also faces fierce competition from incumbents that have copied its playbook and launched their own digital banks.
In 2021, Nubank listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and it has since become profitable, a milestone for a company that spent years growing fast and losing money. It keeps pouring resources into new products—like payroll loans and business accounts—to get more money out of each customer it already has, rather than just chasing new ones.
Saved answer · last researched 22 Oct 2026