==Nu Holdings Ltd. (NU) : 5-year performance

 

Nubank (also known outside Brazil as Nu) is Latin America's largest digital bank and fintech company, serving over 135 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, it operates entirely through a mobile app, offering no-fee credit cards, digital accounts, personal loans, and investments. 

• https://international.nubank.com.br/about/
• Ticker: NU

Core Offerings and Features

Nubank was designed to disrupt traditional Latin American banking by eliminating account maintenance fees, cutting out physical branches, and using data-driven artificial intelligence to provide rapid approvals and strong customer support. 

• Digital Accounts: Features high-yield daily liquidity and digital transfer options like Pix in Brazil.
Credit Cards: Initially launched as a no-annual-fee credit card, it acts as a primary entry point for millions of unbanked and underbanked individuals.
Other Services: Personal loans, life insurance, SME business accounts, and investment products.

Growth and Expansion

Founded in 2013 by David Vélez, Cristina Junqueira, and Edward Wible, Nubank has become one of the fastest-growing and most valuable financial institutions in emerging markets. 

StoneCo (STNE) began trading on the Nasdaq on 25 October 2018

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology solutions that empower merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil.

• Brazilian version of Square (SQ)

• Sector: Technology
• Industry: Software - Application
• Founded in 2000
• HQ in São Paulo, Brazil.
• http://www.stone.co

StoneCo prices upsized 50.72 mln share IPO (from 47.73 mln shares) at $24.00, above the expected $21.00-23.00 range

Arco Platform (ARCE) began trading on the Nasdaq on 26 September 2018

Arco Platform Limited (Nasdaq: ARCE), a Brazilian EdTech startup that provides complete pedagogical solutions to private schools in Brazil.

• The first Brazilian company to go public on the Nasdaq
• Arco Platform priced 11.11 mln shares at $17.50, the high-end of the expected $15.50-17.50 range
• Opened for trading at $24.50.

The company raised around $220 million in a highly sought initial public offering. Shares were priced at $17.50 on Tuesday, the top of their indicated range, as investors seemed to shrug off political uncertainties over the country’s presidential election.

Arco Chief Executive Ari de Sá Cavalcante Neto said that in addition to eyeing rival learning systems, the company is likely to seek providers of services complementary to primary and secondary private schools.

As examples, he cited school management tools or apps to handle communication between teachers and children’s families and systems that teach in accordance with students’ specific needs.

In meetings with investors, Arco marketed itself more as a technology company than as an education company, as it delivers part of its learning system to schools through digital platforms.

Also key to a successful IPO was the fact that Arco kept growing in terms of the number of schools and students using its services during Brazil’s recent recession, the worst in decades.

The for-profit education company was founded in 2004 by the Sá Cavalcante family. Ten years later, U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic acquired a minority stake.