Latin America

Introduction

Latin America is an emerging startup ecosystem region, home to some of the world’s largest cities and emerging tech hubs. The region is home to over 9k+ funded startups which raised a combined $3.9B in VC investment in 2023.

Within the region, in recent years there has been a rapid uptake of digital economy products and services. From fintech to e-commerce and beyond, the region’s consumers are increasingly turning to digital platforms for their everyday needs.

This surge in digital adoption is driving the growth of startups, which are catering to the evolving preferences of a digitally connected population. This has also contributed in the rapid growth in new unicorns over the past decade, with over 60 unicorns now originating from the Latin America.

This guide runs through the need-to-know stats and trends in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship for the Latin American startup ecosystem.

Geographical definitions

For the purpose of this guide, Latin America includes: Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, El Salvador, Ecuador and Bolivia

Paraguay, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Cuba are considered low VC activity regions, hence details of their respective VC investment is not provided.

State of VC

VC by stage

Startups in Latin America raised $3.9B in 2023, down from an all-time-high of $20.1B in 2021. The drop was biggest at breakout and late-stage rounds of $15M+.

VC by region

VC investment across Latin America is on a general upward trajectory, with many key ecosystems driving innovation and attracting significant investment.

This map showcase the recent trend of VC investment into startups headquartered in each respective country in the region for 2024 year-to-date. Hover over each country to dive into the funding round data on the Dealroom platform.

VC by business model

Over the past decade, there’s been a significant shift of VC investment going from Marketplace startups to SaaS startups.

Brazil

Brazil is the region's leader in terms of VC investment with rapidly growing ecosystem hubs found in Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio De Janeiro.

Brazil ranks first in Latin America and within the top 15 globally for VC investment in recent years, alongside the likes of Australia, Netherlands and Indonesia.

In 2023, there was over $1.8B of VC investment into Brazilian startups with 4 megarounds, going into Fintech startups such as Neon, Creditas and Dock.

Explore all the funded startups and scaleups in Brazil as well as funding rounds into Brazilian startups on the platform.

México

México is one of the most attractive markets in Latin America due to its proximity to the US market, well developed industrial sector and growing young population.

The capital, Mexico City, is home to over 20 million inhabitants and is home to emerging Fintech and Transportation startups such as Kavak, Clip and Stori.

In 2023, there was over $832M of VC investment into Méxican startups.

Explore all the funded startups and scaleups in México as well as funding rounds into Mexican startups on the platform.

Colombia

Bogotá is the main hub for VC activity in Colombia, but there are also active startup scenes in other cities, such as Medellín, Cali, and Barranquilla

In 2023, there was $260M of VC investment into Colombian startups.

Explore all the funded startups and scaleups in Colombia as well as funding rounds into Colombian startups on the platform.

Chile

Chile is one of the most developed and mature ecosystems in the region with it's capital, Santiago its leading hub for VC activity.

In 2023, there was over $329M of VC investment into Chilean startups.

Explore all the funded startups and scaleups in Chile as well as funding rounds into Chilean startups on the platform.

Unicorns

Over the past half decade, Latin America has seen a rapid growth in unicorns created, with many of these startups coming from the likes of Brazil and México as seen below.

Fintech unicorns such as Nubank, Stori and C6 Bank are meeting the ever-increasing demand in the region for financial services not provided by the traditional financial sector.

Meanwhile transportation unicorn successes such as Kavak and Rappi have helped put Mexico City and Bogotá on the map for global investors.

Explore over 60+ LATAM unicorns by geography, industry, technologies amongst other filters here on the Dealroom platform.

Investors

Explore the data for the most active investors into the Latin American startups as well as the most active Latin American investors here on the Dealroom platform.

The below table showcases the leading Latin American based investors investing into the Latin American startup ecosystem.

The below table showcases the most active 250 non Latin American investors who invest into Latin American startups.

Funding vs Valuation

The below scatterplot showcases some of the region and rest of the world's most notable tech companies with showcasing the relationship between valuation and total funding.

Explore hundreds of Latin American public company valuations/financial data powered by FlowPartners on the Dealroom platform here.

High growth startup hubs

In Dealroom's most recent tech ecosystem benchmarking report, where over 200 tech ecosystems worldwide were set actionable benchmarks for future successes, four Latin American hubs ranked within the top 20 tech ecosystems worldwide for the Rising Star category.

This Rising Star category looked at startup ecosystems in emerging economies which have benefited from the globalization of venture capital and distributed teams.

Curitiba, Bogotá, Belo Horizonte and Mexico City all ranked within the top 10% of global hubs in this ranking as can be seen below.

Read our dedicated top tech ecosystems guide and report for the full analysis and explanation for the methodology of the ranking.

Top 100 LATAM startups to watch

We’ve identified the top 100 startups to watch in LATAM based on Dealroom Signal.

As opposed to thinking about these lists as ranking the “best startups” in each industry, they can be viewed as the top startups to watch based on their fundraising timeline, growth indicators, founding team, and a number of other factors.

This list is purely data-driven based on Dealroom Signal, which you can learn more about here.

Related Content

Reports: Benchmarking Latin American startup hubs across 200 other tech hubs report
Dealroom Data: Explore all funded LATAM startups and scaleups
Dealroom Data: Explore all LATAM funding rounds