Cristina Junqueira: Co-Founding a Bank While Pregnant to Building a $41 Billion Fintech Giant

Cristina Junqueira was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, the daughter of a civil engineer and a teacher. In a household where education and persistence were non-negotiable, she learned early that progress is built through discipline, preparation, and refusing to accept broken systems as inevitable.

That mindset would eventually lead her to challenge one of the most entrenched industries in the world: banking. And she would do it at the very moment many people told her to slow down, step back, and wait.

Meet Cristina Junqueira, co-founder of Nubank.

Cristina studied production engineering at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), one of Brazil’s most competitive universities. She later earned her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, sharpening her analytical skills and gaining a global perspective on finance and operations.

She began her career in banking, working at Instituto Unibanco and later at Itaú Unibanco, one of the largest financial institutions in Latin America. On paper, it was a successful trajectory. In reality, it exposed a deep flaw in the system.

Brazilian banks were slow, expensive, and hostile to everyday customers. Fees were opaque. Customer service was painful. Millions of people were excluded or underserved. Cristina didn’t just notice the problem — she felt it, every single day.

And she couldn’t unsee it.

In 2013, Cristina teamed up with David Vélez and Edward Wible to build something radically different. Their idea was deceptively simple: a digital-first bank that treated customers fairly, transparently, and with respect.

At the time, Cristina was pregnant with her first daughter.

Many people told her the timing was impossible. Launching a startup was already considered reckless. Doing it while starting a family was seen as irresponsible. The subtext was clear: choose one. Cristina refused.

The early days of Nubank were brutal. Investors doubted the idea. Competitors dismissed the team. Regulators posed constant challenges. But Cristina pushed forward, helping shape Nubank’s culture, customer obsession, and product rigor from day one.

Nubank grew because it solved a real pain point, not because it followed fintech trends. Customers came, then stayed. By 2017, Nubank had 3 million customers. By 2019, that number had grown to 15 million.

The company expanded beyond credit cards into full digital banking, steadily building trust in markets long dominated by legacy institutions.

In 2021, Nubank went public at a $41 billion valuation, becoming the largest digital bank in the world and one of the most valuable fintech companies ever founded.

Today, Nubank serves more than 100 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. What began as a contrarian idea became a defining force in global finance.

Cristina’s motivation has always gone beyond valuation or market share. Reflecting on her journey, her purpose is deeply personal.

By building Nubank, Cristina didn’t just disrupt banking. She expanded what women can imagine for themselves in technology, finance, and leadership. She built one of the most successful banks in history while quietly dismantling the barriers that told women to wait their turn.

And yet, outside of fintech circles, her name is still far too unknown.

Cristina Junqueira is one of the most underrated builders of our time. She saw a broken system, challenged it head-on, and scaled a company that now serves over a hundred million people. She did it while becoming a mother, while facing skepticism, and while operating in an industry that rarely welcomes outsiders, especially women.

Her story is a reminder that the most transformative companies are often built by people who refuse to accept “this is just how it works.”

What do you refuse to accept today?