Latin America Startup Funding Ticked Higher In 2024

Latin America startup investment closed out 2024 on an up note, with the fourth quarter delivering the highest aggregate funding of the year.

Overall, investors put $4.2 billion into seed- through growth-stage rounds for the region in 2024. That’s a 27% increase from the prior year.

Even with these gains, however, funding remains far below the peaks scaled in 2021 and early 2022. Last year, meanwhile, was a historically weak period for venture investment in Central and South America.

For perspective, we charted out investment totals, color-coded by stage, for the past 12 quarters below.

A fintech-led recovery

Fintech was by far the dominant sector for Latin America’s startup investment in both Q4 and 2024 overall, with companies in the space pulling in the lion’s share of the largest rounds.

In the fourth quarter, for instance, the largest venture financing was a $300 million Series E for Buenos Aires-based neobank Ualá. The next-biggest was a $133 million Series C for Brazil-based Asaas, a provider of online business accounts, followed by a $125 million venture round for another Brazilian company, Contabilizei, an accounting platform.

You can see the financial sector’s strong showing in the chart below, outlining 13 of the year’s largest Latin America venture rounds.

Digital commerce was another predominant theme for startup funding in 2024. Two Mexico-based companies were among last year’s largest fundraisers: Clip, a provider of payment terminals and apps for merchants that raised $100 million, and OCN, an EV subscription service for rideshare drivers that picked up $86 million.

Brazil leads for startup funding as late stage gains

Brazil was by far the largest startup investment recipient in the region in 2024, pulling in close to half of funding. Next was Mexico, capturing roughly a fifth of total investment, followed by Argentina, Colombia and Chile.

Funding was up year over year for a majority of geographies. Investment by stage, however, fluctuated a great deal quarter to quarter.

For Q4, in particular, late-stage funding drove gains, with investment hitting its highest point in five quarters, as illustrated below.

Early stage, meanwhile, was weaker in the fourth quarter, actually hitting the highest point of the year in Q1, as illustrated below.

Exits ahead?

The past year was not particularly happening for IPOs or big-ticket acquisitions of venture-backed startups in Latin America. Given the sizable pipeline of well-funded, relatively mature companies in fintech and other areas, however, the hope is that activity will rebound in 2025, particularly if the IPO market shows renewed signs of life.

For now, it’s encouraging to see that the worst of the post-peak downturn may be behind us, with funding to Latin America’s startups on the rise in both the past quarter and all of 2024.

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of Jan. 3, 2025.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. Crunchbase includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration: Dom Guzman