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. Open the full dashboard →
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.
Academia
South America's academic flywheel
Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to South America.
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 | $44.1T | 5.8× | 3,634 | $444B | 288.9K |
| 2 | North America | $31.5T | 6.8× | 2,136 | $290B | 122.2K |
| 3 | Asia | $8.9T | 4.0× | 916 | $85.5B | 74.2K |
| 4 | EMEA | $4.6T | 4.7× | 857 | $84.1B | 89.8K |
| 5 | Europe | $3.8T | 4.4× | 689 | $67.9B | 75.5K |
| 6 | European Union | $2.3T | 4.4× | 410 | $37.3B | 48.5K |
| 7 | Nordics | $581B | 5.1× | 105 | $8.2B | 8,196 |
| 8 | South America | $502B | 11.3× | 69 | $4.7B | 8,638 |
| 9 | Oceania | $368B | 10.6× | 51 | $5.4B | 5,662 |
| 10 | Central Eastern Europe | $193B | 5.2× | 58 | $2.3B | 7,162 |
| 11 | MENA | $142B | 12.4× | 33 | $5.9B | 4,435 |
| 12 | Africa | $73.6B | 10.7× | 14 | $1.7B | 4,526 |
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.
Get the full South America ecosystem on Dealroom
Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.