Mexico Extends Its Venture Lead Over Brazil As More Global VCs Enter Latin America

For the third quarter in the past year, Mexico-based companies raised more venture capital in Q2 than their Brazilian counterparts, Crunchbase data on startup funding in Latin America shows, as Silicon Valley investors including Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led some of the largest deals in the region. Mexico’s startups led the LatAm pack in Q2 — by a wide margin. The country’s startups raised $944 million in the second quarter, up 131% compared to $409 million in last year’s Q2, and up 136% from the $401 million raised in this year’s first quarter, per Crunchbase data. For comparison’s sake, that’s almost as much as Latin American startups as a whole raised in the second quarter of 2025. Notably, Mexico-based companies accounted for the region’s three largest fundraising deals in the quarter ended June 30. Meanwhile, Brazil-headquartered startups raised $350 million in Q2 2026, down 11% from the $363 million raised in Q2 2025, but up 20% from the $270 million raised in Q1 2026. In general, a continued boom in late-stage and growth funding helped buoy the region for the period, Crunchbase data shows. Startups in Latin America raised a combined $1.36 billion across seed- and growth-stage deals in the second quarter, up 47% year over year and 22% from the first quarter. For perspective, we charted out total investment, color-coded by stage, for the past 10 quarters below. Of that total, $991 million went into late-stage and growth deals, up 84% year over year and 30% compared to the first quarter of 2026. Round counts declined sequentially and year-over-year across angel, seed and early stages. (We expect the Q2 deal count to rise somewhat over time, however, as seed rounds in particular are commonly reported weeks or months after they close.) Table of contents Late-stage boom Investor POV The US-LatAm connection Methodology Glossary of funding terms Late-stage boom There were five nine-figure raises in Latin America in the second quarter, and as mentioned earlier, three of those were by Mexico City-based companies. Interestingly, several of the deals were led by U.S.-based firms. In June, payments startup Clip raised $500 million at a valuation exceeding $2.5 billion in a private-equity deal with undisclosed investors. In April, digital bank Plata raised $405 million in a Series C round led by Miami-based Bicycle Capital at a $5 billion valuation. And in February, Kavak , a startup that operates a pre-owned car marketplace, raised $300 million in a Series F financing co-led by Laguna Beach, California-based WCM Investment Management and Menlo Park-based Andreessen Horowitz . Notably, the round was reported to be a16z’s largest investment in Latin America and the first in the region for its growth fund. Other large deals in Latin America in the same period included a $195 million round for Argentinian digital bank Ualá in March, led by Germany’s Allianz X at a $3.2 billion valuation. And, Sao Paulo-based legaltech startup Enter raised a $100 million Series B led by San Francisco-based Founders Fund. Investor POV Several investors who spoke with Crunchbase News described a somewhat slower pace in the region. Miguel Armaza , co-founder and general partner of New York-based Gilgamesh Ventures , said the firm remains active, although its investments so far this year have been in U.S. and European companies. It has seen less early-stage fintech activity in Latin America but expects to make new investments in the region, given its current pipeline. The region’s underlying fundamentals remain intact and fintech adoption continues to grow, he said. Ana Cristina Gadala-Maria , principal at Alexandria, Virginia-based QED Investors , said her firm’s pace in Latin America has also slowed, largely because it is increasingly investing around global themes rather than individual geographies. As QED focuses more heavily on stablecoins and artificial intelligence, many of the most compelling startups it encounters operate globally, with Latin America representing one of several important markets, she said. Within Latin America, QED generally invests at the later Series B stage. Federico Antoni , managing partner at Mexico City-based Hi Ventures , said the firm’s investment pace has remained consistent. Brazil and Mexico continue to attract the bulk of all three firms’ activity, but the investors noted that promising companies are also emerging elsewhere in the region. Armaza cited portfolio successes including Uruguay-based Brinta , which was acquired this year by U.S. public company Vertex ; Argentina’s Pomelo , which raised a $55 million Series C in January; and Venezuela’s Tesote , which serves CFOs and corporate treasury teams. “I think this is an underrated LatAm story right now: The periphery is also producing big successes,” he said. The US-LatAm connection The investors are also tracking an increasingly fluid relationship between Latin America and U.S. technology hubs. Hi Ventures, which is now focused almost exclusively on AI applications, has expanded its strategy to include Latin American founders building companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. About half of its portfolio is based in San Francisco, including companies led by founders originally from Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. “We increasingly think of the ecosystem as one connected innovation network rather than separate geographies,” Antoni said. Armaza has observed a similar trend among both repeat and first-time entrepreneurs who are relocating to San Francisco or New York to build U.S. or global companies from the outset. “The talent is still LatAm talent, but the company formation is increasingly happening here,” he said. The New York-based firm’s sector focus remains on early-stage companies developing financial and commercial infrastructure. At QED, meanwhile, stablecoins, tokenization and digital assets have become a substantially larger part of the investment strategy than they were several years ago, particularly at the infrastructure layer. The firm is also interested in the intersection of AI and fintech, including applications that improve financial operations and customer experiences or broaden access to financial services. Overall investment in Latin America remains far below its 2021 peak and has returned to roughly 2019 levels in both capital deployed and deal volume. But today’s market differs from 2019 in one significant respect, Antoni noted: AI allows founders to build companies and reach meaningful milestones with considerably less capital. That shift may particularly benefit Latin American entrepreneurs accustomed to operating with limited resources. “The region has always produced resourceful founders, and today’s environment rewards capital efficiency rather than aggressive spending,” he said. The threshold for securing funding, particularly at the Series A stage and beyond, has nevertheless risen considerably. Investors are still deploying capital, Antoni said, but more selectively. Armaza noted that global investors have historically cycled in and out of Latin America, particularly firms without dedicated regional teams or local roots. But the region’s largest rounds in 2026 have attracted firms including Sequoia Capital , Andreessen Horowitz, Tencent , Allianz X and Goodwater Capital . “This tells you that the best capital in the world finds great companies, regardless of macro sentiment,” Armaza said. Recent public-market activity by Brazilian fintech companies could further boost the funding prospects for later-stage startups. Gadala-Maria said the fact that two of fintech’s three IPOs have come from Brazil serves as an important signal that Latin America can produce durable, high-quality fintech companies capable of reaching sufficient scale to enter the public markets. The newly public companies also provide comparables that investors can use to evaluate the next generation of later-stage Latin American fintech companies, potentially giving them gr