Cristina Junqueira

Contractions. Delivery. Term sheet.

Cristina Junqueira closed her Series A hours (yes, hours) after giving birth.

In 2013, Cristina walked away from a lucrative job at Brazil’s biggest bank.

She was 30, pregnant, and fed up with a system built to serve the elite.

She’d pitched ideas like zero-fee credit cards and better customer service... only to be told they’d “never work.”

So she quit.

And two months later, she co-founded Nubank.

The mission?

Strip banking down to its bare essentials. Fair, accessible, and digital-first.

She was seven months pregnant when she flew to San Francisco to pitch Sequoia Capital.

She signed the deal in her hospital bed hours after giving birth.

And she didn’t stop.

By the time Nubank IPO’d in 2021, Cristina had helped grow it into the largest neobank in the world, serving over 114 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.

The company’s valuation? $50 billion.

Cristina’s stake alone? Nearly $2 billion at its peak.

She flew to New York for the IPO eight months pregnant.

She appeared on the cover of Forbes Brazil three days before giving birth.

She built a product team that prioritized transparency, empathy, and real impact over legacy systems and bureaucracy.

And she made sure the company’s growth didn’t come at the cost of inclusion.

At Nubank, 43% of leadership roles are now held by women.

The company is actively recruiting women in tech, hiring thousands from underrepresented communities.

She’s now Chief Growth Officer of Nubank, leading international expansion and product innovation.

She’s still a vocal advocate for gender equity in finance.

And she’s raising four daughters while running a global company.

Her motto? You can’t dream of what you can’t see.