Insights, Rankings & Ecosystem Pages

In 2022, venture capital funding cooled in Latin America after a year of tremendous growth in 2021. The region experienced a 5% decline in early-stage funding amount and a 72% decline in Series B+ funding amount. The Series B deal count was down 54%. However, total funding for 2022 still exceeded that for all the tracked years prior to 2021, indicating that the region is faring well over the longer term. Latin America’s share of early-stage funding amount increased 49%, from 1.7% in 2018 to 2.5% in 2022. It also experienced a 65% increase in Series B+ deal count and a 143% increase in Series B+ amount in the period 2018–2022. Fintech is particularly successful in this region, making up on average 37% of Series A deal count over the same period.

São Paulo, a major tech startup hub and also Brazil’s largest city, climbed two positions in the rankings and now finds itself at #26, earning the distinction of being the top-ranked ecosystem in the region and the only one featured among the top 30 + runners-up. It has seen impressive funding activity, including Fintech Nubank's $41.5 billion IPO in 2021, consumer lending startup Creditas's $310 million Series F round in January 2022, and digital bank Neon’s $300 million Series D round in February 2022.

Other Brazilian cities, such as Rio de Janeiro and Florianópolis, are also rapidly developing their own tech startup communities, benefitting from the government's Legal Framework for Startups, introduced in June 2021, which encourages companies to experiment with innovative technologies and business models.

Key Findings

• At #26, São Paulo is Latin America’s only ecosystem in the top 30. It is home to the region’s highest-valued Fintech, Nubank, which exited in a 2021 $41.5 billion IPO. From 2020–2023, the ecosystem has risen four places, from #30 to #26.
• Mexico City has held steady in the 41–50 range in the Emerging Ecosystem ranking, of which it is the highest-ranked ecosystem in the region. Car-trading platform Kavak produced Latin America’s biggest deal in the GSER 2023 timeframe, a September 2021 $700 million Series E round.
  
• Buenos Aires moved up to the 51–60 range in the Emerging Ecosystem ranking, buoyed by a 70% increase in Ecosystem Value and a 100% increase in the number of exits over $50 million, with highest-valued unicorn Nuvemshop valued at $3.1 billion.
  
• Bogotá has moved up to the 61–70 range in the Emerging Ecosystem ranking, partially due to a 37% increase in Ecosystem Value fueled by the consumer tech company Rappi, which is valued at $5.25 billion, as well as Proptech platform Habi, which became a unicorn in 2022.