Decade Raises US$85M to Combine AI and Human Financial Advisors

Decade, a wealth management platform combining artificial intelligence with human financial advisors, has emerged from stealth with an US$85 million seed round, equivalent to approximately R$440 million. The company describes the financing as the largest seed round ever raised by a Latin American startup.

The round was led by Greenoaks, Benchmark, and Diffusion, with participation from Brazilian funds Atlantico and Norte Ventures. Although the capital was committed in September 2025, Decade spent the following months building and testing its product before publicly launching on August 4.

Building a New Model for Wealth Management

Decade was created around the idea that managing personal finances should not require customers to navigate multiple institutions, investment products, and financial decisions on their own.

The platform consolidates a customer's accounts through Brazil's Open Finance system, connecting with institutions including BTG Pactual, XP Investimentos, Genial, and C6.

For R$200 per month, Decade continuously monitors portfolios and spending while pairing each customer with a senior human financial advisor who can be reached through WhatsApp.

The product had been available in beta to selected users for six months before the company emerged from stealth. At launch, Decade opened a waitlist for new customers.

The company holds a CVM investment consulting license and has applied for authorization to operate as an asset manager.

“Managing your own money is a second job. Perform poorly and you'll be indebted, structurally unable to retire,” said Vitor Olivier, Decade's co-founder and CEO.

A Team With Deep Nubank Roots

Decade was co-founded by Vitor Olivier and Felipe Meneses.

Olivier spent 12 years at Nubank, progressing from an early engineer to chief technology officer before leaving the company in August 2025.

Meneses was the first Brazilian selected for the Thiel Fellowship. He previously founded the AI credit platform Hyperplane, which joined Nubank after the bank acquired the company in 2024.

Decade currently operates from São Paulo and San Francisco and has 26 employees, divided between engineers and financial advisors.

Why Brazil Is the Starting Point

Decade's strategy is built around a significant participation gap in Brazil's investment market.

Approximately 33% of Brazilians hold any financial investments, while only around 7% could fund their retirement from their savings, according to figures cited by the founders.

They attribute this gap to low financial literacy and an advisory industry historically built around commissions, which can create conflicts between the products advisors recommend and what customers actually need.

Decade positions itself as an independent layer between customers and financial institutions. Its model aims to provide the type of multi-family-office service traditionally associated with larger portfolios without relying on commissions from product sales.

Brazil was deliberately selected as the company's initial market because of its financial infrastructure.

Pix processes close to 100 billion transactions per year, while Open Finance provides standardized access to financial data across institutions. According to the company, this infrastructure makes continuous portfolio monitoring technically feasible in ways that are not available in most markets.

The strategy echoes Nubank's approach of using Brazil as a proving ground before expanding internationally.

Meneses described the pace of technological change behind the company's launch:

“A year ago, it would have been impossible to build what we are building.”

Greenoaks partner Neil Mehta framed the investment opportunity by comparing it with Nubank's impact on banking fees, arguing that investing had yet to experience a similar transformation.

AI as an Independent Financial Layer

Decade's proposition is based on combining continuous AI-powered monitoring with access to human financial advisors.

The company argues that artificial intelligence can reduce the information asymmetry that has traditionally characterized financial services.

“Financial services are complex by design and often monetized through asymmetry of information. AI collapses that asymmetry,” said Felipe Meneses, co-founder and Head of AI at Decade.

Rather than replacing human advisors entirely, Decade combines AI capabilities with senior advisors who remain accessible to customers through WhatsApp.

What Decade's Launch Means for the US

The financing also highlights growing interest from major US investors in Brazil as a testing ground for AI applications in financial services.

Greenoaks and Benchmark led the round from Silicon Valley, while Decade maintains a San Francisco office alongside its São Paulo headquarters.

For US wealth management companies, Decade's model introduces a structural alternative based on subscription pricing and AI-powered monitoring rather than percentage-of-assets fees.

The company is also building in an environment supported by Pix and Open Finance, infrastructure that does not have a direct equivalent in the United States.

What the Round Signals for Brazil

For Brazil's startup ecosystem, the US$85 million round represents both a significant financing milestone and another example of the strength of the Nubank alumni network.

Decade's founders were able to attract a record amount of capital before publicly launching the product, reflecting the reputation and experience accumulated through their previous ventures.

The company is entering a wealth management market dominated by XP Investimentos, BTG Pactual, and the private banking divisions of major financial institutions, where commission-based distribution has traditionally been common.

If Decade's independent, fee-only approach gains traction, it could increase competitive pressure on those incumbents while simultaneously relying on their customer data through Open Finance.

Does the Pricing Match the Democratization Pitch?

Decade charges R$200 per month, or R$2,400 per year.

That is equivalent to a 1% annual advisory fee on a portfolio of approximately R$240,000, and a 2.4% fee on R$100,000.

For customers with less than roughly a quarter of a million reais in assets, the flat subscription can therefore be more expensive than the percentage-based advisory model Decade seeks to replace.

This creates a potential limitation for a company whose broader proposition is to democratize access to wealth management, particularly among the two-thirds of Brazilians who hold no investments.

Can a Company Raise a Record Round Before Proving the Model?

The US$85 million was committed in September 2025, while the product spent six months in limited beta before the public launch.

Decade currently has a waitlist rather than broad availability and still needs to demonstrate whether combining human advisors with AI can outperform lower-cost automated alternatives.

The company has not disclosed assets under management, customer numbers, or performance data.

Is “A New Generation of Millionaires” a Forecast or a Slogan?

The company's positioning around creating a “new generation of millionaires” has raised questions about the gap between its marketing ambition and what its product can directly influence.

Improved portfolio monitoring and fee optimization may improve returns at the margin, but wealth creation at the scale suggested by the company's name also depends on savings rates, income growth, and market performance.

Those factors are outside the direct control of an advisory subscription.

Decade is also still awaiting CVM authorization to manage portfolios directly, adding another regulatory step to its expansion.