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XP Inc.
XP was founded in 2001 by Guilherme Benchimol and Marcelo Maisonnave as a small independent brokerage in Porto Alegre, operating from a single room.
XP Inc.
XP was founded in 2001 by Guilherme Benchimol and Marcelo Maisonnave as a small independent brokerage in Porto Alegre, operating from a single room. Its founding thesis was that Brazil's retail investors were underserved by the country's five dominant banks, which controlled roughly 80% of the investment market through captive distribution. Benchimol recruited autonomous financial advisors and gave them access to a broad product platform, a model that fundamentally reset distribution economics in the Brazilian wealth industry. The firm's strategy spans retail brokerage, wholesale banking, asset management, and private credit. It offers equities listed on B3, fixed-income products including government and corporate bonds, mutual funds, structured products, and alternative investments such as real estate and private equity funds. In private markets, XP has built a credit origination business that extends loans to mid-market Brazilian companies, competing with traditional bank lending. Its asset management arm, XP Asset Management, runs roughly R$100 billion in AUM across equities, multi-market, and credit strategies. The firm's geographic focus remains overwhelmingly domestic, though it maintains advisory offices in New York, Geneva, and London to serve Brazilian clients with offshore wealth. XP went public on the Nasdaq in December 2019, raising $1.96 billion in one of the largest IPOs by a Brazilian company that year (per SEC filings, 2019). Itaú Unibanco had purchased a 49.9% non-controlling stake in 2017, a deal that effectively validated XP's disintermediation model. In October 2024, XP announced that Thiago Maffra, formerly CTO, would assume the CEO role while Benchimol moved to Chairman, signaling a succession from founder-led growth to scaled public-company operations (per XP, October 2024). The firm employs over 6,000 people and supports a network of more than 14,000 independent financial advisors. Its structural differentiator remains the autonomous-advisor network, a model that more resembles an American RIA aggregator than a Latin American bank. Unlike incumbents that rely on salaried branch officers, XP pays its advisors a share of revenue on the products their clients hold, creating a retention lock that legacy institutions cannot easily replicate without cannibalizing their own branch distribution. The resulting platform has become the primary onboarding ramp for first-time Brazilian investors, capturing a demographic tailwind that predates and outlasts any single rate cycle.
General information
Firm type
Bank / Wealth / Trust
Year founded
2001
Location
Region
Latin America
Country
Brazil
City
São Paulo
Corporate office
São Paulo, SP, Brazil
Additional offices
New York, NY, United States · Geneva, Switzerland · London, United Kingdom
Principals
Guilherme Benchimol
Founder & Chairman
Thiago Maffra
CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at XP?
XP's asset management division, XP Asset Management, operates under a CIO structure that reports to the CEO. While the firm does not centralize all investing decisions under a single named portfolio manager, its funds are managed by dedicated teams for equities, multi-market, credit, and alternatives. The firm's shift to Thiago Maffra as CEO in October 2024 placed a technology and platform specialist at the top, indicating that product architecture and distribution technology remain as central to the strategy as investment selection.
How does XP source deal flow for its private credit and alternative products?
XP originates private credit directly to mid-market Brazilian corporates through its wholesale banking division, bypassing traditional bank intermediaries. On the alternative-investment side, XP Asset Management structures real estate, private equity, and infrastructure funds distributed through its advisor network. The advisor network itself functions as a sourcing channel, surfacing client demand that shapes product development priorities.
Is XP structured as a family office or does it operate more like a public company?
XP is a publicly traded company listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker XP. It operates as a diversified financial-services platform with retail brokerage, asset management, private credit, and insurance arms. While founder Guilherme Benchimol retains significant influence as Chairman and a major shareholder, the firm's governance and reporting reflect its public-company status, not a single-family-office structure.
Does XP participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
XP operates in both. Through its asset management division, it raises and manages funds across equities, fixed income, multi-market, and private markets. Through its wholesale banking arm, it originates direct credit transactions to corporate borrowers. Retail clients access both fund structures and individual securities through the brokerage platform.
What is XP's relationship to Itaú Unibanco?
Itaú Unibanco acquired a 49.9% non-controlling stake in XP in 2017. The deal recognized XP's threat to Itaú's own distribution and gave the incumbent bank exposure to the independent-advisor channel. Despite the stake, XP operates independently with its own management, brand, and product roadmap, and Itaú does not consolidate XP's financials.
Does XP maintain a philanthropic structure, and how is it separated?
XP does not operate a prominent standalone philanthropic foundation comparable to those of many single-family offices. Founder Guilherme Benchimol participates in Brazilian educational and social initiatives privately. The firm's public reporting focuses on its commercial financial-platform operations rather than grant-making activities.
What is XP's posture on co-investments alongside external managers?
XP Asset Management structures and distributes co-investment vehicles in real estate, private equity, and infrastructure, typically alongside its own fund commitments. The firm's primary co-investment posture is as a platform and product structurer for its own client base, rather than as a bilateral co-investor alongside unaffiliated GPs in the institutional LP sense.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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