Of the 100 most valuable start-ups in Brazil, only two are run by women – one of them is her.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Sao Paulo When Cristina Junqueira wanted to say a few sentences at the IPO in New York last week, the co-founder of the Brazilian fintech Nubank was interrupted by euphoric cries from children: “Mamãe!” Yes, her three daughters were present, she said, briefly stroking her round ball Pregnancy belly – and continues with her address professionally.
When the bell rings, the 39-year-old is suddenly a dollar billionaire. It owns 2.6 percent of the shares in the now highest-rated bank in Latin America, which it co-founded seven years ago. That corresponds to around $ 1.2 billion when it went public last Thursday.
This makes her a double exception among the rich in the world: there are only a few women among the 500 billionaires in the world. And not many of them have earned their fortune themselves – the Bloomberg news agency recorded exactly three percent.
Junqueira is used to the fact that it usually plays a special role. As everywhere in the world, the lively Brazilian start-up scene and its investors are male-dominated: White men give other white men money for projects, she said in a recent television interview. Of the 100 most valuable startups in Brazil, only two are run by women – one of them is at Nubank.
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Eight years ago, the Colombian venture capital analyst David Veléz was looking for partners in São Paulo for his project for a digital bank – and he was the only Brazilian woman to join the founding team, which also includes the US-American Edward Wible, who is responsible for IT is. “We probably had a screw loose,” said Veléz when he went public. “How dare we challenge the banking establishment?”
One Nubank share as a gift for each account holder when the company goes public
Nubank started with a free credit card. The institute now offers almost all banking services via app. 40,000 customers are added every month.
From the outset, Junqueira was primarily in contact with the central bank and the authorities in Brazil. She is now formally CEO of Nubank Brazil – but her real strengths are marketing, branding and maintaining relationships with customers.
After working for established banks and institutions, the industrial engineer from the renowned University of São Paulos with an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in the USA was disappointed that they were so bureaucratic and so little innovative. The highly profitable banks in Brazil would have ignored them at first, then laughed at them and finally fought vigorously. “And now we’ve won,” she says with her mixture of eloquence, quick thinking and charm.
The customers of Nubank could spend several billion reals more on food or leisure instead of contributing to the profits of the banks due to the saved fees and lower interest rates.
She also came up with the idea of giving the account holders a share. Nubank now has 7.5 million registered shareholders – twice as many as the São Paulo stock exchange had before Nubank went public.
But the pressure on the start-up from the financial establishment remains high: In the media, anonymously quoted representatives from financial circles complain that Nubank has brought the well-known funk singer and clever entrepreneur Anitta to the board and given a five-year contract. The young institute obviously wants to increase its identification with the bank. The critics sourly ask whether Anitta even has the skills to do her job on the board.
Junqueira emphasizes that the proportion of women at Nubank, at over 40 percent, is far higher than in the Brazilian financial system. 30 percent of the employees are LBGQ +, i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The established banking competition is clearly lagging behind on these issues.
“Extreme parenting” instead of a marathon
Junqueira is repeatedly asked how to have two children, to be pregnant with the third and at the same time to build a billionaire company. She says that there is only Nubank and her family in her life. Everything else – sports, parties, travel, congresses – she renounces.
Marathons and triathlons are currently seen as the “new MBA” for managers and entrepreneurs. She considers “extreme parenting” to be at least equivalent preparation for any entrepreneurship: As a present mother, you are heavily dependent on external factors that you cannot control. But nobody write about it.
More: Nubank celebrates its IPO in New York – paper loses significantly at the close of trading