Nomad is expanding its operations and increasing the possibilities for capital allocation to global assets.
Nomad provides international bank accounts and an investment platform for Brazilians.
Launched first only as a provider of banking solutions, with a dollar account and a debit card accepted in over 50 countries, the fintech was founded in 2019 by Patrick Sigrist — who had been one of the creators of Brazilian unicorn iFood — Marcos Nader and Eduardo Haber.
The company has been moving to expand its investment portfolio with the launch of what it has called select funds.
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The new products consist of three options of ETFs, according to the investor’s risk profile — careful, balanced, or aggressive — in addition to a fixed-income index fund.
All funds made available for investment are managed by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, with about $8 trillion under its care.
An easy investment platform
In a recent interview, Nomad’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Caio Fasanella said that users do not need extensive knowledge of global markets to invest with the selected funds.
“Nomad itself suggests the asset, according to the risk profile, and the customer can make the application of the money with a few clicks,” he explained.
With approximately 500,000 accounts open, one of the fintech’s biggest attractions is offering a wide range of investments starting at $1, including the new mode of selected funds.
Nomad has more than 800 assets, including stocks and ETFs traded on Nyse and Nasdaq, as well as U.S. REITs.
In addition to expanding the investment shelf, the fintech has been devoting more attention to the non-financial products and services vertical. Following the wave of other Brazilian fintechs, such as Nubank, Nomad has created several partnerships to make a kind of “shopping” available within its app.
There are about 30 partners, including large retailers such as Amazon, car rental companies, and lodging platforms.
The company is not looking to compete with well-established digital banks in Brazil, such as Nubank, C6, and Inter. Still, by adding these kinds of solutions, it seeks to complement the value proposition of the company’s global platform.
Nomad expects to reach next year with between 1 million and 2 million accounts.
U.S.-based infrastructure
The popular U.S. bank account solution for Brazilians has been made possible through Nomad’s partnership with Evolve Bank & Trust.
The fintech uses Synapse’s banking as a service (BaaS) infrastructure. And the foreign exchange operations are performed by Banco Ourinvest, for which Nomad is a foreign exchange correspondent.
In the case of the investment platform, like other players, the fintech has an agreement with the local distributor FRAM Capital. In the United States, where Nomad is registered as an investment advisor, operations are done in partnership with the broker DriveWealth.
In May of this year, the company announced raising $32 million in an extension of its Series A round, with funding led by Stripes — a Manhattan-based funds manager.
The company’s valuation increased considerably with this funding, reaching $189 million.
