Nubank pushed beyond credit cards in Mexico with IPO cash (interview)

The Brazilian neobank's Mexican arm: credit cards first, now building deposits, financing and a wider product range on a sofipo licence.

Mexico's 130 million people — millions of them hours from the nearest ATM — want a full Nubank portfolio, not just the purple credit card that opened the door.

Nu México launched its purple credit card weeks before the pandemic struck in 2020. By December 2021 the parent had listed on the NYSE, raising US$2.6 billion, and the Mexican unit — more than 500 people — was funded by Nu Holdings capital plus credit lines from international banks.

In September 2021 Nu México acquired Akala, a sofipo — a licensed non-bank fund regulated by CNBV that typically serves the informal and under-banked market — unlocking products a card issuer could not offer, deposits included. CEO Emilio González told BNamericas the goal was a Brazil-style broad portfolio — credit card, deposit account, personal loans, insurance, investments — adapted to the Mexican consumer, with hiring across technology, product engineering and design through 2022.

The card had proven demand at scale in under two years — but a single-product neobank caps itself at the credit-card ceiling.

Buying a licensed sofipo shortcut years of regulatory waiting, converting card customers into deposit and lending customers overnight.

The merchant partnerships put instalment credit where Mexicans already shop, making the card useful before the branch-less network existed.

Post-IPO capital removed the usual constraint on a sub-scale market: González said funding would continue 'more than anything' to back credit balances.

Distribution first, licence second, portfolio third: the card is the door, the sofipo is the building, the IPO pays the rent.

The interview, published 23 December 2021 during the 25-day post-IPO quiet period, kept specific numbers undisclosed: plans included hiring across all functions, new products beyond cards, continued investment in Mexico and Colombia, and the Akala sofipo positioned as the gateway to a full product range for the under-banked.