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- The normalization of investing via Zoom has unlocked Latin American startups for US investors.
- 2 Accel investors said they’re hunting potential unicorns in the region, especially in e-commerce.
- They say domestic versions of Shopify or DoorDash can tap into a huge potential market.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Silicon Valley investors don’t want to miss out on Latin America.
2020 was a record year for tech startups across the giant, diverse region with $4.2 billion invested across 370 deals, per CB Insights.
The COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat democratized the startup funding process, with investors in San Francisco conducting funding discussions over Zoom calls rather than insisting on in-person meetings.
“The quality of founders in Latin America is high, but it wasn’t as acceptable to do a lot of these investments through video calls previously,” Andrew Braccia, partner at Accel, said. “Post pandemic, it’s more efficient to do this and global boundaries are starting to melt away.”
Four years ago, fintech startups in Latin America were securing a fraction of their current funding and attractinga handful of Silicon Valley funds. In 2019, fintech startups in the region raised $1.7 billion from investors, up from $236 million in 2017. In 2019, SoftBank announced an innovation fund with $2 billion to deploy specifically in Latin America.
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