The Tech Investment in LATAM
Latin America shows a growth on the internet and mobile internet market, which opens a window of opportunity for tech startups. It is known that once the core market has been saturated, the search for less developed markets starts, in hope to find new growth opportunities. The VC tech investment in 2017 was of $1.1 billion in comparison with the 5 previous years the investment had estimated been of $500 million. The investment trend continues to grow year by year.
Founding numbers have increased as well, for the first time, there have been round from $90-$100 million. Transaction have also shown a growth, 2017 tripled 2016 transactions, proving there is a maturity on the market that it hadn’t been seen before.
Global venture capital firms have been looking for opportunities to invest in Latin America. 25 new firms from Silicon Valley and Asian have entered the region in 2017. It is known that money isn’t all, in order of it to work many factors must be aligned, such as technological and social infrastructure, and there must be and existing demand from the locals.
Institutional support plays an important role for this to work properly. In the last years there has been an increment in support from institutional investors and the local government. Across Latin America since 2010 different programs have appear to help the growth of startups, some of these programs are Startup Chile, Mexico’s found of Founds.
Latin America starts to show market maturity for the first time. Within coming the increment of founding and institutional support, creation a unique opportunity for Latin America to become tech leaders in the next years.