Founder David Velz says goal to contain complexity to deliver empowerment to 80 million customers
Word of mouth and recommendations were and are essential in building the branding of Nubank, the purple card that started operating 10 years ago in Brazil in a townhouse in the Brooklin neighborhood, in So Paulo, with just 12 people. Today, with more than eight thousand employees (nubankers) and a market value of approximately US$ 30 billion and US$ 2 billion in cash, the idea remains to reduce the complexity in the relationship between consumers and the banking trade and, consequently, generate empowerment for the 80 million customers it has accumulated, of which 75 million in Brazil, since its launch. The others are in Mexico and Colombia.
A great novelty, in the words of Cristina Junqueira, founder, CEO Brazil and Growth, is the sponsorship of Jornal Nacional as of June 1st. The campaign in Rede Globo’s main newspaper is signed by an agency that the executive prefers not to reveal the name due to contractual issues. She explains that the investment will pay off, but she does not exclude the strong buzz that the brand has.
Arriving at JN means brand maturity, summarizes Cristina, emphasizing that Nubank is the 7th most valuable brand in the country according to the Interbrand ranking, with very little investment in marketing. She continues: It’s easier to build a reputation with big budgets. But we have that recognition.
According to CEO and founder David Velz, the challenge remains enormous, but during this period it brought a culture that added savings of 248 billion hours in bank queues. Velz emphasizes that this exaggerated timing of traditional banks to provide customer service at branches was also part of Nubank’s product blend and marketing project, which ten years later accounts for an annual profit of US$ 141.8 million and around 1 million new customers monthly.
The work was hard. The initial group left the small house in Brooklin in 2013 to test the card’s operation in the machines of a neighboring bakery. The first two attempts were unsuccessful. The operation was only approved on the third. A relief, recalls Velz. Today we have a portfolio of 25 products such as Crypto, Caixa and Consignado. We are a licensed financial services technology company. We are in the age of artificial intelligence, which will be more revolutionary than the internet and smartphones were, he concludes.
