Emerging markets of continental dimensions have a peculiar way of creating comfort traps. Brazil is one of them: with over 200 million people, it's large enough to support billion-dollar companies without them needing to cross borders.
Around 60% of our unicorns reached US$1 billion with purely domestic business models, compared to 16% of their peers in Latin America. We built enormous businesses here, and for a long time, these companies didn't need to leave Brazil to succeed.
What we are seeing now is a shift: from "building for Brazil" to "building from Brazil." A generation that is born global. Among companies founded between 2020 and 2024, 33% have already expanded internationally and 29% plan to do so as a next step. It's no longer an afterthought. It's been part of the strategy from the start.
The playbook remains the same: build in a complex market, solve real problems at scale, grow with discipline. The difference is that now this playbook crosses borders. Accustomed to building in one of the world's most volatile and complex markets, these entrepreneurs leave Brazil with a real advantage to build in global hubs.
Every entrepreneur who scales globally expands Brazil's brand worldwide and inspires the next generation to follow the same path. Some Brazilian companies are already demonstrating how this translates into practice. Blip, for example, transformed a local advantage into a global conversational AI platform, present in over 36 countries.
Tractian moved its headquarters to Atlanta after raising $120 million and opened an AI Center in São Paulo. VTEX built a presence in more than 40 countries and went public on the NYSE. These are Endeavor entrepreneurs who are helping to define a new standard.
With artificial intelligence accelerating this process, this window has never been so wide open. The cost of building, testing, and distributing has fallen. The time between birth and scaling has shortened dramatically. AI has leveled the playing field: access times have shortened and scaling has become more feasible.
The Brazilian diaspora working in AI is now part of how we do this. Silicon Valley is the main hub for these Brazilian entrepreneurs, being the center of the artificial intelligence revolution. Of the 140 Brazilian entrepreneurs mapped in the United States already with operating companies, 40% are in California. The ecosystem is booming, with impressive founders thinking globally from day one.
This Brazilian diaspora is driven by the increased flow of capital, talent, and knowledge. This was not common a few years ago. We had exceptions like Brex, built in the US by an Endeavor Entrepreneur born in São Paulo and acquired by Capital One in January 2026 for US$5.15 billion.
Now we are beginning to see a new generation of companies emerging, already connected to the main global technology and AI hubs. Enter, founded by young Brazilian entrepreneurs, has reached a valuation of US$1.2 billion with the support of top-tier global investors. At the same time, we see companies like Vetto.AI building datasets for cutting-edge AI labs and achieving tens of millions in revenue in just a few months in Silicon Valley.
Could they have built these companies from Brazil? Probably yes. But perhaps at a different pace. Instead, they operate close to the world's major technology hubs, while hiring Brazilian talent and bringing knowledge, expertise, and connections back to the local ecosystem.
What remains a competitive advantage is the ability to build in complex environments and solve difficult problems at scale. Brazil has already proven that it knows how to do this. The question now is how to transform this capability into consistent global relevance, whether through companies built from Brazil and operating on a global scale, or through Brazilian entrepreneurs creating global companies from day one.
The country doesn't need to learn how to be an entrepreneur. It needs to expand its presence on the innovation map in proportion to the talent and execution capacity it has demonstrated over the last few decades. This requires an ecosystem that stops operating solely inward and starts working closer to the forefront of global entrepreneurship.
Every Brazilian founder who ventures into global business paves the way for those who come after. Because, in the end, competing on a different scale transforms not just one company, but the ambition of an entire ecosystem. Brazil can no longer occupy the position of an unlikely exception. It needs to occupy a space compatible with its potential.
* Maria Teresa Fornea is Managing Director of Endeavor Brazil. Previously, she founded Bcredi, a mortgage lending fintech acquired by Creditas in 2021, where she served as vice president until 2024.
