David Vélez
Founder, CEO & Chairman, Nubank at nubank
Summary Updated Aug 30, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Colombian-born founder, CEO & Chairman of Nubank (NYSE: NU), the São Paulo-based digital bank he founded in 2013 after a Sequoia Capital tour tasked with launching a Brazil office. Nubank IPO'd December 2021 at a ~$45B valuation and reached ~131M customers by 2025. Signed the Giving Pledge in August 2021 with wife Mariel Reyes, launching family philanthropy VelezReyes+ focused on Latin American children and young adults. Personal angel-investing activity outside Nubank is not extensively documented in public sources.
Background
David Vélez was born in 1981 in Medellín, Colombia, and holds dual Colombian and Costa Rican citizenship 1. He completed a bachelor’s degree in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University and an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business (2012) 1.
Prior to founding Nubank, Vélez worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and in growth equity and venture capital at General Atlantic 1. In 2011, he joined Sequoia Capital as a partner tasked with establishing the firm’s Brazil operations 1. Sequoia later shelved the Brazil expansion, citing a local shortage of software engineers 1.
In 2013, at age 31, Vélez co-founded Nubank in São Paulo with Brazilian co-founder Cristina Junqueira and American co-founder Edward Wible 1. His motivation stemmed from personal frustration with Brazilian banking bureaucracy: as a foreigner in Brazil he had found opening a bank account “to be overly bureaucratic and expensive” 1. The startup launched a no-fee credit card via mobile app, targeting customers dissatisfied with traditional banks. Nubank secured early backing from Sequoia Capital and Kaszek Ventures, raising approximately 600 million Brazilian reais plus $14.3 million across early rounds 2.
Nubank crossed 12 million customers in 2019, expanded into Mexico and Colombia in 2021, and went public on the NYSE in December 2021 at a first-day valuation of roughly $45 billion 1 2. By 2025 the bank reported approximately 131 million customers across three countries, $16.3 billion in revenue and $2.87 billion in net income 2. In January 2026, Nubank received conditional U.S. banking approval 2.
In August 2021, Vélez and his wife Mariel Reyes Milk signed The Giving Pledge, committing to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy, primarily focused on Latin American children and young adults 3. In 2022 they launched VelezReyes+, a family philanthropic platform 1. As of 2025, Forbes ranked Vélez 236th globally with an estimated net worth of $10.7 billion 1. In September 2024, the Colombian Congress awarded him the Grand Knight rank of the Simón Bolívar Order of Democracy 1.
Stated Thesis
Vélez has not published a formal personal investment thesis for angel activity outside Nubank. Public sources primarily document his views as a founder and CEO. His stated priority for personal capital deployment, per the Giving Pledge letter, is Latin American philanthropy rather than venture investing 3.
On why he built Nubank in Brazil, Vélez has framed the bet as an infrastructure problem worth attacking: he noted the difficulty of opening a bank account as a foreigner in Brazil was the trigger for the venture 1.
Inferred Thesis
Vélez’s public role is that of an operator (founder, CEO and Chairman of a publicly traded neobank) rather than a full-time angel investor. Independently verifiable angel investments outside Nubank are limited in the public record; this profile therefore does not attempt to compute portfolio percentages.
What is verifiable about his capital deployment posture: - Latin American focus. VelezReyes+, his family philanthropic vehicle, focuses on opportunities for disadvantaged children and young adults in Latin America 3. - Long-term horizon. Vélez’s own operating pattern at Nubank — a decade-plus build to a public listing — and his Giving Pledge framing suggest a preference for patient, high-impact capital rather than short-duration financial returns. - Fintech and financial-services fluency. His operating knowledge is concentrated in consumer fintech, digital banking and credit; any angel activity is most credibly evaluated inside that scope.
Sample size for personal angel deals is too small to compute stage or sector percentages, so none are asserted here.
Portfolio
No independently verified personal angel investments outside Nubank have been located in the public record as of August 2026. Vélez’s most consequential capital allocation remains his ownership stake in Nubank itself; separately, he directs philanthropic capital through VelezReyes+, which is not a venture vehicle 3.
| Company | Stage | Year | Sector | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nubank | Founder/CEO/Chairman | 2013 → present | Fintech / Digital banking | Public (NYSE: NU) | 12 |
If independently sourced personal angel investments surface, they should be added here with primary citations.
In Their Own Words
On urgency of deploying wealth: “There is extreme urgency to invest wealth now to help improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people” 3.
On what wealth is for: “We should invest the majority of our wealth the same way we are investing the majority of our time — by helping to improve people’s lives” 3.
On the limits of accumulation: “After a certain point, additional wealth just doesn’t bring additional happiness nor utility. But the satisfaction of building a purposeful life, that’s endless” 3.
On purpose: “Life’s meaning is derived from making a difference in people’s lives: in making the most of our opportunity to create opportunities for others” 3.
On their philanthropic ambition: “We seek to build a completely unique philanthropic platform in Latin America and we are already recruiting a world class team” 3.
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials describing a working relationship with David Vélez as an angel investor have been located. Founders who have worked with Nubank as a company, or founders who have interacted with Vélez in a mentorship or LP context, are not covered here in the absence of verifiable, on-the-record quotes.
Sources
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Wikipedia, “David Vélez,” accessed August 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_V%C3%A9lez↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Wikipedia, “Nubank,” accessed August 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubank↩↩↩↩↩
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The Giving Pledge, “David Vélez and Mariel Reyes pledge letter,” submitted August 11, 2021, accessed August 2026. https://www.givingpledge.org/pledger/david-velez↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩