(Europe) Neon, a fintech company and digital bank focused on improving the lives of working Brazilians, has announced the appointment of André Madeira as the company’s new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Madeira brings extensive knowledge in engineering to the role, along with expertise in building scalable products for the masses from his stints at Google, Snap, and Coinbase. Madeira will spearhead transforming Neon into a technology-driven financial product powerhouse, beginning with a remote-worker recruiting effort to build his team with the world’s best tech talent, regardless of location.

In 2021, Madeira successfully sold his AI-powered fintech start-up, Meemo, to Coinbase, where he recently oversaw crypto-related consumer-facing data products. He has also built a career building and leading large engineering and data efforts and teams for over a decade at Google Search and Snap, creating scalable and highly personalized products that impact billions of people daily. He will now focus on helping Neon reach new potential with its growing customer base.

Neon’s mission is to decrease inequality in Brazil, where the gap between the wealthy and the low-income population has been persistently large.

“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,” said Madeira. “I was captivated by Neon’s mission and impressed by its commitment to using technology to provide equitable offerings for the underbanked in Brazil while striving to deliver a first-class customer experience reserved only for the wealthy.”

Neon plans to invest heavily in large-scale data engineering, data science, distributed systems, and machine learning to create products that significantly improve and personalize the customer experience. Madeira’s appointment and the goal to structure the team in a more globally distributed way has Neon thinking about technology differently, motivating the company to embrace a modern tech mindset.

“To succeed in this increasingly competitive market, all areas of technology such as engineering, data, product, and design must work extremely well together,” Madeira emphasized. Traditionally in Brazil, and the financial industry more specifically, the interplay between these areas is a constant challenge as a company grows. I am committed to ensuring all these fronts work together seamlessly to promote scalable value creation with repeatable innovation at Neon.

“Additionally, I’m excited to have the opportunity to build a product with such an incredible purpose —  reducing inequality in Brazil — this is why Neon really caught my attention. I was also impressed with the excellent professionals that make up the Neon technology team.”

Embracing its remote-first work strategy, Neon plans to continue to hire in Brazil and expand the talent pool worldwide to add to its 1,800 employees.

“One of my immediate goals is to transform Neon into a global leader in technology by bringing world-class talent into the company, no matter where they are,” says Madeira, who was highly successful in attracting top talent while at Snap and in founding Meemo.