South America
Continent / region · #18 region by EV
Largest rounds
Largest funding rounds in South America
A live treemap of $100M+ rounds from the Dealroom API. Each cell is one round into South America-headquartered companies, grouped by Dealroom sector.
Largest rounds in South America - 2026
Startup funnel
South America's power-law funnel
From the first cheque written to a $10B+ outcome. Each arrow shows what fraction of companies at one stage graduate to the next, tracked by founding cohort.
* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.
VC investment
How much venture capital flows into South America
VC investment into South America-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage. Live from the Dealroom Next Gen API.
Country leaders
Which South America countries raise the most — and grow the fastest
VC investment by country across South America. Pick a year (the current year is year-to-date) and switch between the biggest markets and the fastest-growing ones.
Notable companies
Top private companies in South America
Up to 20 names per tier from Dealroom's tracked dataset. Decacorns are valued $10B+, unicorns $1B+, thoroughbreds have crossed $100M in revenue.
Location comparison
How South America stacks up
Compare South America with peers from other continents / multi-country regions — switch between combined EV, 5-year EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.
Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.
Top regions globally ranked by combined EV. South America's row is highlighted (#8).
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | 5-yr EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | World | $43.6T | 5.4× | 3,930 | $444B | 291.2K |
| 2 | North America | $31.2T | 6.2× | 2,357 | $290B | 123.1K |
| 3 | Asia | $8.8T | 3.9× | 957 | $86.6B | 74.8K |
| 4 | EMEA | $4.5T | 4.7× | 890 | $84.2B | 90.5K |
| 5 | Europe | $3.7T | 4.5× | 716 | $68B | 76.1K |
| 6 | European Union | $2.2T | 4.5× | 425 | $37.3B | 48.9K |
| 7 | Nordics | $574B | 5.2× | 109 | $8.2B | 8,284 |
| 8 | South America | $501B | 11.2× | 71 | $4.8B | 8,689 |
| 9 | Oceania | $338B | 9.7× | 55 | $5.4B | 5,704 |
| 10 | Central Eastern Europe | $192B | 5.3× | 57 | $2.3B | 7,186 |
| 11 | MENA | $131B | 11.9× | 32 | $5.9B | 4,496 |
| 12 | Africa | $71.9B | 10.5× | 14 | $1.6B | 4,548 |
Sector concentration
Where South America punches above its weight
Sectors in which South America's share of the global unicorn pool is bigger than its overall share. A 5× over-index means South America is 5× more represented in that sector than in the global average. Source: top-hub aggregation across the 18 simplified sectors.
Premium analytics
What we don't show on this page (yet)
Sector breakdowns, founder origins, AI-talent leaderboards and live deal flow are gated to logged-in Dealroom users. Book a demo to access the full South America dataset — or see a sample on the Dealroom app.
More data
Explore Dealroom data →Get the full South America ecosystem on Dealroom
Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.