Two former Nubank executives have raised $85m to build an AI wealth adviser in Brazil. Their backers call it the largest seed round in Latin American history. The startup, Decade, came out of stealth on Tuesday with money from Greenoaks, Benchmark and Diffusion, and a striking promise: to create “a new generation of millionaires.”
The founders carry weight. Vitor Olivier was an early engineer at Nubank and rose to chief technology officer as it grew into the world’s largest digital bank, with more than 100 million customers. Felipe Meneses, the first Brazilian named a Thiel Fellow, founded the AI startup Hyperplane, which Nubank later bought. Bloomberg first reported the launch.
The round, worth about R$440m, is unusually large for a company still on a waitlist with nothing shipped. The investor list explains the nerve. Greenoaks has backed Stripe, Revolut and Anthropic. Benchmark seeded Uber and Snap. Diffusion was founded by Victor Lazarte, who built Wildlife Studios into Latin America’s largest gaming company.
The pitch, and the gap it names
Decade’s case starts with a real problem. Only about a third of Brazilians hold any investment, and just 7% can live off their savings in retirement. That is despite the country leading the world in payments. Pix, Brazil’s instant-payment system, handles close to 100 billion transactions a year.
