Brazilian neobank Nubank adds $750M to its Series G, now totaling $1.15B, led by Berkshire Hathaway, at a $30B valuation
In 2013, Colombian businessman David Velez decided to reinvent the Brazilian banking system. He didn't speak Portuguese, nor was he an engineer or a banker …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second bite of the same round: Nubank had already raised a $400M Series G tranche in January at a $25B valuation, and the Berkshire Hathaway-led extension pushes the total to $1.15B while lifting the price by $5B in under six months. The arc from the 2019 profile — 14M customers and a $10B valuation on disruption of Brazil's banking sector — shows the valuation tripling in about two years.
What matters beyond the money is the lead investor: Berkshire Hathaway is an unusual backer for a consumer fintech, and its name attached here foreshadows the company's next moves — the US IPO filing it makes later this year, where sources say it seeks a valuation above $55.4B.
First-order effects
- Nubank banks $750M more at a $30B valuation, giving David Velez's team a larger war chest and a Berkshire Hathaway imprimatur just months after the first $400M Series G tranche.
Second-order effects
- A Berkshire-led round functions as due diligence by proxy for public-market investors, strengthening the case for the US listing Nubank files for later in 2021.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — mega-extension at a rising private mark, then IPO at a higher one — late-stage rounds like this become a signaling stage rather than pure financing, and blue-chip value investors become kingmakers for which fintechs reach the public markets.
The trend: Blue-chip investors are using oversized pre-IPO extensions to anoint LatAm fintech winners, with the private mark set months ahead of the public one.