Research

Latin America has long been viewed as a source of crime, commodities, and cocaine. The idea that the region could be technologically sophisticated enough to attract significant interest from venture capitalists has seemed unlikely. Generally, investors view Latin America with its great geopolitical risks and frequent sovereign debt crises as high risk and unworthy of consideration by VCs whose business is already inherently risky. However, in recent years, this perspective has been changing radically. Latin America is currently experiencing a major tech boom catalyzed by massive venture capital investment that is redefining the conservative, risk-averse approach to investing in the region and disrupting many sclerotic industries. According to data from Crunchbase, Latin America was the fastest-growing region for venture capital in 2021 with investors devoting $19.5 billion to investments, a figure that is triple that made in 2020: