Brazilian fintech unicorn Neon hires André Madeira as new CTO

Brazil’s Neon, a fintech company and digital bank, has appointed André Madeira as its new chief technology officer (CTO).

Neon appoints new CTO

Madeira brings engineering and product building expertise to the role from his stints at Google, Snap, and Coinbase.

In his new role, Madeira will be tasked with “transforming Neon into a technology-driven financial product powerhouse”, beginning with a remote-worker recruiting effort to build his team.

Madeira sold his AI-led fintech start-up Meemo last year to Coinbase where he recently oversaw crypto-related consumer-facing data products. He has also led engineering and data teams for over a decade at Google Search and Snap.

“People’s relationship with money is quite emotional, especially on the low end of the income spectrum. Building trust through fair, understandable, and useful financial products is key to creating a loyal bridge between consumers and products and services,” says Madeira, Neon’s new CTO.

Neon says it has plans to invest heavily in areas such as large-scale data engineering, data science, distributed systems, and machine learning to create products that improve customer experience.

“In order to succeed in this increasingly competitive market, all areas of technology such as engineering, data, product, and design must work extremely well together,” Madeira adds.

Founded in 2016, Neon aims to drive financial inclusion in Brazil by providing free checking accounts, debit and credit cards, payroll loans, and additional products for small businesses.

It claims to have over 15 million customers and a valuation of $1.6 billion following its $300 million Series D fundraise by Spanish banking giant BBVA.