Latin America VC Report 2026

Now in its fourth edition, the Latin America VC Report captures how a fundamentally optimistic industry is navigating one of its most complex cycles. Despite the challenges, founders and investors across the region are still building companies that aim to change reality — not just locally, but globally.

This year’s report combines hard data with two perception Index (investors and founders) and a new VC Efficiency Index, offering one of the clearest pictures yet of where the ecosystem really stands.

We hope this report is as useful for you to read as it was for us to prepare.

What you’ll find in this report

1. Latam VC Confidence Index (LVCI): insights from GPs and institutional investors across the region.
2. Startuplinks Confidence Index: perspectives from funded founders on fundraising, growth, and runway.
3. The Next Big Thing Latam: views from 20 industry experts on the trends and theses that will shape the next cycle.
4. VC Recap 2025: the key metrics and figures that defined Latin America’s venture capital market over the past year.
5. Exits: the state of liquidity in the region, its main drivers, and emerging patterns.
6. Latam’s VC Scene: a practical guide for LPs and family offices on how to invest in the region.
7. Latam VC Efficiency Index (VEI): the countries with the most efficient venture ecosystems in Latin America.

What investors think (LVCI)

The Latam VC Confidence Index, based on 126 surveyed investors, shows cautious optimism among GPs and institutional investors: 58% report high confidence for the next 6–18 months, but with a strong focus on discipline, political risk, and real exit potential.

• 47.2% plan to increase their investment activity over the next 12–18 months (2026 and 2027), and 7.2% plan to increase it significantly.
• Almost half see the fundraising environment as “neutral” and only 6.4% expect a clear improvement.
• 38.1% perceive better startup quality in the region; 48.4% see it as similar.
• 62.7% consider the exit environment unfavorable.
• Main risks for 2026: lack of exits (73.8%), political instability (57.1%), and LP pullback (44.4%).

How founders see the market

The Startuplinks Confidence Index captures the voice of 49 funded founders: overall, entrepreneurs face longer and tougher fundraising processes, but they still bet on growing with VC and raising new rounds in the short term.

• 53% rate the fundraising environment as unfavorable or very unfavorable.
• 30.6% are still raising, and 24.5% needed 6–12 months to close their last round.
• 53.1% describe themselves as very optimistic about their startup’s growth.
• 51% plan to raise a round in the next 12 months.
• Top concerns: lack of exits (49%), low participation from local institutions (46.9%), and political instability (38.8%).

Exits: better, but mostly invisible

VC‑backed startup exits reached US$4.9 billion in 2025 (+172% vs. 2024), with almost the same number of transactions (63 vs. 62). The average deal size tripled, and the real liquidity market could be up to 4x larger.

• At least US$6.1 billion in liquidity when including PE & growth in 15 transactions with public data. Another 55 deals were reported without public amounts.
• M&A accounts for 67% of the main exits; secondaries represent 27%, and there is only one SPAC.
• Two transactions (Despegar and Securitize) account for ~48% of total disclosed value.
• Secondaries in companies like Vercel, Plata, Contabilizei, and Omie show that partial liquidity is here to stay.
• Illiquidity, far from being a flaw, often acts as a mechanism to protect long‑term value from public market volatility.

Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil in the lead

The report also introduces the VC Efficiency Index (VEI), a composite metric that assesses the efficiency of each VC ecosystem across three dimensions: Intensity (VC as a percentage of GDP), Density (VC per capita), and Breadth (number of deals per million inhabitants). The methodology makes it possible to compare countries of different sizes and ecosystem stages on an equal footing.

In 2025, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil form the regional Tier 1, combining high investment intensity, VC per capita, and deal activity.

Source: Cuantico VP, VC Efficiency Index (VEI), Latin America VC Report 2026. VC figures do not include Venture Debt.

• Chile (VEI 40.2): highest VC per capita (US$12.51) and high breadth (2.66 deals per million inhabitants).
• Uruguay (39.1): highest regional breadth (3.53 deals per million inhabitants).
• Brazil (38.2): highest intensity (0.090% of GDP) and the largest absolute volume.
• Tier 2: Colombia (30.5), Mexico (30.4), Argentina (24.7), and Central America (22.4).
• Tier 3: Peru (10.3), still an early‑stage ecosystem.

Globally, Israel (91.7) and the United States (82.7) set the benchmark, while India (43.1) sits just above Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil.

How much venture capital was invested in Latin America in 2025?

Latin American startups raised US$4.126 billion across 681 rounds in 2025. This represents 13.8% year-on-year growth versus the US$3.627 billion recorded in 2024, and the first meaningful recovery after the post-2021 correction cycle.

The recovery, however, is not broad-based. The number of rounds fell from 694 to 681 (a 1.9% decline), the lowest deal count since 2017. The average ticket per deal increased 16%, from US$5.2 million to US$6.1 million. This confirms that capital is concentrating in fewer companies with stronger traction and validation, rather than being spread across more startups.

“The difference now,” notes Jose Kont, our executive director, “is that the pendulum is starting to swing back: 2026 and 2027 will bring more liquidity into the region, which can reignite industry appetite.”

What sectors received the most funding in Latin American VC in 2025?

Fintech dominated Latin American VC in 2025, capturing 61% of total funding with only 29% of deals. This means fintech not only closes many rounds, but also the largest ones. The three biggest deals of the year were all Mexican fintechs: Plata (US$250M Series B and US$160M Series A) and Klar (US$170M Series C).

The top 10 rounds of 2025 totaled US$1.229 billion, nearly 30% of all capital deployed in the region.

SaaS consolidated its position as the second sector, with 13% of both deals and funding. Logistics (5% of deals, 17% of funding) and energy (4% of deals, 10% of funding) show deals-to-capital ratios that indicate larger tickets linked to infrastructure-intensive models.

What role is venture debt playing in Latin American startups?

Venture debt has emerged as a significant financing layer for growth-stage Latin American startups, partially offsetting the 56.8% contraction in Series C+ equity funding. Although not included in traditional VC statistics, venture debt structures and non-dilutive credit facilities have become central to the financing stack, particularly for credit-focused and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintechs.

Several operations perceived within the ecosystem as ‘megadeals’ are in fact venture debt instruments, primarily used to fund loan books and working capital. These structures do not appear in our report, but are increasingly relevant for understanding the full picture of startup financing in the region.

What’s next: six bets for the next cycle

Drawing on the perspectives of 20 industry experts, our report identifies six macro‑trends that will define the next investment cycle: less ‘software‑first’ and more technology applied to real assets, productive sectors, and the structural advantages of the region (natural resources, demographics, and industrial base).

• AI applied to real problems: agents for SMEs, automation, and data for water, energy, agriculture, and health.
• DeepTech and scientific innovation: biotech, new materials, critical minerals, and energy.
• Evolved fintech: embedded infrastructure, asset tokenization, and financial solutions for specialized verticals such as climate tech and health.
• Digitalization of traditional industries: agriculture, construction, logistics, retail, and mining.
• Longevity and healthtech: AI for treatment personalization, early diagnostics, and new therapies.
• Energy and sustainability: storage, green hydrogen, and energy efficiency, with LatAm as a structural supplier.

Event presentation (in Spanish)

Below you will find the live broadcast of the event in Spanish, an online session for the entire region streamed from WeWork.

About the Latin America VC Report

The LatAm VC Report is produced by Cuantico VP, a research, market intelligence, and strategic visibility platform for the Latin American VC and startup ecosystem. The report is developed in partnership with Startuplinks, a platform that maps, organizes, and connects startups, investors, and key ecosystem players across Latin America.

Data as of full-year 2025. All figures in US dollars. Venture debt transactions are excluded from all VC metrics unless explicitly noted.