One of the founding and current partners Nubank CEO says he can't spend his fortune. David Vélez said, in a recent report, that he no longer knows what to do with all the money he earned as a result of his venture. Consolidated as one of the largest financial institutions in Latin America, Nubank is worth around R$ 206.01 billion.
Read more: Caixa releases microcredit of up to R$ 3 thousand; learn about the SIM Digital program
see more
'Barbie' movie predicted to boost Mattel profits…
Japanese company imposes time restriction and reaps benefits
Top of the Wealth Pyramid in the New Economy
Upon becoming a billionaire at age 40, David Vélez said he felt a certain discomfort when he saw that he had entered the top of the wealth pyramid in the new economy. “Last year, the value of the company became enormous. One day, you wake up and think: Wow, what do we do with these shares? It's a lot of money. We don't need it, we don't have a life of luxuries,” he said.
At the end of 2021, the financial institution made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange worth around R$ 41.5 billion, however, it is only nine years old. The IPO made Nubank surpass traditional banks in market value, such as Bradesco and Itaú, becoming the most valuable financial institution in all of Latin America.
According to the CEO, founding Nubank from scratch seemed impossible at first. The idea arose shortly after Velez left the staff of a traditional bank and abandoned his career as an executive to become an entrepreneur.
“We are in the eighth and going into the ninth year of Nubank's history. The growth was much faster than we imagined. No one expected to reach nearly 50 million customers,” he reports.
Donating half of your accumulated fortune
Furthermore, a few months before the company's IPO in August 2021, Vélez, along with his wife, Mariel Reyes, an economist, joined The Giving People, the philanthropic initiative of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
In this sense, the couple made a commitment to donate something around half of their fortunes to social projects on an ongoing basis. In addition, to make the deal real, Vélez and Reyes are developing a platform whose objective is to generate opportunities for underprivileged Latin American children and youth.
“No matter how much money you have, no one has yet found a cure for death. We all have an ending and nothing is taken. I'm not going to be able to spend all that money, no matter how creative I am, and billionaires are creative," he explained.
Furthermore, the CEO even shared his dreams for the future of the world. “Before, perhaps the definition of success was being on the Forbes list. The idea was to be as rich as possible. Now that starts to change. Success will be generating a lot of value for yourself and for society. I am an optimist,” he concluded.