How One Change Helped Nubank Generate $150M in Passive Revenue

For many of our customers in the UK, Nubank might not be considered a household name, but in Latin America the 12-year-old neobank has been breaking records.

Nubank is one of the world’s largest digital banking platforms built on a simple idea: that banking should be easy, transparent and accessible to everyone.

Founded in Brazil in 2013, the company set out to challenge traditional banks by offering intuitive, fee-free products through a beautifully designed app. Over the years, Nubank has grown into a trusted financial partner for millions across Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Today, Nu is the third-largest financial institution in Brazil by number of customers, according to the Brazilian Central Bank. In September 2025, their customer base reached 110.1 million — representing 60% of Brazil’s adult population!

But Nubank is more than just core banking products

Nubank didn’t get to where it is just by offering current and savings accounts.

To be competitive in today’s neobanking landscape, they knew they needed to go beyond the basics. They needed a way to deepen customer relationships while generating passive income.

Enter embedded insurance.

Embedded insurance? What’s that?

We’re glad you asked. Embedded insurance is a distribution model that’s disrupting how people access protection by integrating insurance into the purchase journey of other goods and services. For example, when you book a holiday trip, the option to insure it is right there. When you buy a new phone, you can purchase extended protection right during check out.

In other words, embedded insurance makes protection more accessible and convenient.

And Nubank recognised that this was a great opportunity.

Learn more about how embedded insurance works.

Using insurance to trampoline to new heights

As Nubank scaled its digital banking and credit card offerings in Brazil and other Latin American countries, it noticed customers were increasingly looking for safety nets around their money. Traditional insurance is often complex, paperwork-heavy, and full of jargon — a process that can feel alienating to modern digital customers.

Nubank saw its opportunity: They could leverage its trusted app, active user base, and data-driven approach to distribute insurance more efficiently than traditional players.

Rather than building a full insurance company from scratch, Nubank partnered with established insurers and reinsurers, acting as a digital distribution and customer-experience layer. By embedding simple, low-friction insurance products directly into its app, Nubank turned protection into a natural extension of its financial ecosystem, strengthening its brand as a friendly, problem-solving partner in people’s everyday lives.

Nubank reached 2 million active insurance policies in Brazil by mid-2024, with over 1 million coming from the Nubank Vida life product alone, showing strong real-world demand for simple, app-based insurance.

How it worked

Nubank began by launching bite-sized, app-based insurance products, such as life and accident coverage, bill and loan protection, and device or purchase-related protections for card users. These products were designed to be affordable, subscription-like add-ons with clear pricing, simple exclusions, and the ability to sign up or cancel in a few taps.

From a business perspective, Nubank earns recurring revenue through commissions or profit-sharing arrangements on each active policy sold via its platform. Because the insurer handles underwriting, claims management, and regulatory capital, Nubank’s operational burden for each policy remains relatively low compared to its core lending activities.

And one of their core insurance offerings was life insurance.

Check out how easy it is to purchase life insurance through the Nubank app.

The results speak for themselves

More than 1 million of their existing customers bought Nubank life insurance — generating $150M in revenue! (Source: SEC NU Holdings IPO filing estimates, Chubb)

Traditional distribution models can struggle to match these numbers. For example, over traditional phone sales, we estimate it would take 750,000 hours to sell these 1 million policies — and that’s if every person buys a policy after a simple 45-minute call. A single sales person working five days per week, eight hours a day would take 360 years to make that many calls.

Embedding a life insurance product backed by an established carrier provided a low-cost, easy-to-implement offering that aligns with Nubank's priority of keeping operating costs low. They tout a Monthly Average Cost to Serve Per Active Customer of only $0.90 — meaning they don't spend a lot to operate, with the Monthly Average Revenue per Active Customer crossing the $13 mark for the first time in Q3 2025.

Building loyalty

Nubank’s success goes beyond simply selling insurance. After instating embedded insurance, Nubank found that customers who adopted insurance products became more engaged, checking the app more frequently, using additional Nubank features, and showing higher loyalty metrics and lower churn.

Not only did insurance drive revenue, it boosted adoption of other products.

For customers who purchased insurance, Nubank became their one-stop hub for financial resilience. It became their preferred platform for managing their finances. Reports say the avergage Nubank customer uses about four of their products.

Today's customers don't want an app for each service. They want convenient, centralised management of all their finances in one place. Nubank capitalized on this. Offering insurance didn't just open a new revenue stream, but drove overall adoption.

There's no doubt Nubank's strategies have paid off. In Q3 2025 they reported 127 million customers globally, over 4 million net additions in Q3 2025, and an activity rate above 83%.

How easy is it to launch embedded insurance?

It’s probably easier than you think. Eleos offers a plug-and-play model that allows you to embed digital term life and income protection insurance right into your existing platform. No compliance headaches. No long product development timelines.

• Step 1: Choose which products align with your organisational goals. Eleos Life offers a variety of solutions including term life insurance and income protection. Choose whether you want to offer one or both products. Our team can walk you through adoption rates and average policy premiums.
• Step 2: Choose how you want to integrate. Redirecting customers from your app or website is the fastest solution to implement. However, you can also opt for a solution that fully integrates into your platform via API, creating a seamless customer experience that’s fully hosted on your platform.
• Step 3: We create your journey for you. Send us your logo and brand colours. We’ll take care of building the journey so that it looks and feels like you every step of the way. Our full insurance product is delivered ready to plug and play, including compliance and regulations.
• Step 4: Launch your new insurance product. We’ll provide the marketing support you need to go live, from email copy to social media posts. You just push it all live.
• Step 5: Enjoy your new revenue stream. You make commission every time a policy sells.

Questions or concerns?

Our team is happy to assist. We can help you figure out if embedded insurance is the right option for your organisation’s mission.

Embedded insurance is a tool that can help you drive both revenue and loyalty — building a brand that can truly ingrain itself into customers’ lives.

If you want to talk through your options, just contact our team.