New York - There is a window of opportunity for the development of new technologies in Latin America due to a confluence of abundant liquidity, a supercycle of artificial intelligence (AI), and the rotation of capital to emerging countries.
At the eighth edition of Bank of America's (BofA) Latin America Private Tech Trailblazers Summit, data helps to put this moment into perspective. Capital expenditures for AI hyperscalers could jump from US$155 billion in 2022 to US$770 billion this year.
If a year ago many companies were still talking about AI as a "feature," now it's already operational. Today, the most interesting companies are used as examples for treating AI as part of their architecture.
The integration of assets and data within ecosystems shows that the rotation of capital to emerging markets is accelerating. According to BofA data, it has increased from US$49 billion last year to an expected US$96 billion this year.
BofA's market data shows that those who are well-capitalized will have opportunities to consolidate positions and accelerate scaling. Furthermore, the current discount in valuations of Latin American tech startups creates potential for re-rating companies that deliver predictable traction, governance, and talent retention.
Read below some highlights from the event:
Under the radar
With an extensive portfolio of investments in Latin America, ranging from Nubank to Loggi, and including Petlove, Inter, Rappi, and Petlove, Alex Szapiro, general manager Latam of SoftBank Latin America Fund, highlighted that the consumer market is one of the great underestimated opportunities in Brazil – especially the pet market.
He pointed out that the country is already the third largest pet market in the world and that, for many families, dogs or cats are practically like children.
"When an animal gets sick, a veterinary hospital bill can easily reach US$500, a hefty sum for the average Brazilian," said Szapiro.
Citing Petlove, he said that the company solved this problem with pet insurance, meaning that there are "underexplored consumer verticals outside the traditional fintech and payments axis."
"There are many opportunities under the radar in consumer goods, retail, and services, which are difficult sectors but with real market depth," he added.
Bullish in Venezuela
Nicolás Szekasy, co-founder of Kaszek, recalled that Venezuela was once one of the largest markets in Latin America for digital adoption. He also noted that there is a highly talented Venezuelan diaspora now successfully undertaking ventures in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.
According to him, many of these professionals are expected to return to the country or open operations there, creating a cycle of reconstruction. With "everything to be done" and a completely open market, Szekasy believes that "the next five years will be very promising, with room for new companies to seize opportunities from scratch."
"I am super bullish about the future of Venezuela," said the co-founder of Kaszek.
Motivated founders
Companies that grow through successful acquisitions are able to keep founders motivated and scale without losing speed or culture.
Talita Lacerda, CEO of Petlove, explains that when integrating teams through M&A or partnerships, the decisive factor is keeping entrepreneurs engaged. And this means operational autonomy, participation, and an environment conducive to continued innovation.
“What’s key for us is the set of incentives we’re going to put together. The environment we want to have in the company so that entrepreneurs continue building and focusing on what’s really important,” she said.
Capital for those who don't need it.
Understanding the macroeconomic cycle of Latin American countries, Verônica Serra, founder of Innova Capital, stated that the best time to raise capital is when the entrepreneur doesn't need the money.
What seems like a contradiction, in her view, is a way to have liquidity, strengthened cash flow and, above all, financial governance to face regional cycles.
“Entrepreneurs should raise capital now, when they don’t need it, so they can use it when they do. Because there will be a crisis. Latin America, and especially Brazil, is cyclical and experiences frequent crises. Having liquidity and a strong CFO is critical,” stated the founder of Innova.
Data like diamonds
Proprietary data and asset integration are diamonds in the rough in investors' portfolios. Henrique Iwamoto, partner at Prosus Latam Ecosystem, exemplified how this happens in the group's portfolio.
By placing iFood at the center, he says that operational advantages appear when there is data integration, which allows for risk reduction, cross-selling, and monetization via advertising and AI.
“With the ecosystem approach, we can leverage data across portfolio companies. If you capture iFood user information and validate the customer, you can reduce delinquency by 30% to 40% on a given platform,” said Iwamoto.
Gabriel, the thinker
There's a challenge in building an artificial intelligence agent that isn't exactly a robot. At Cloudwalk, daily interactions feed proprietary models, accelerating the learning cycle. At the fintech company, Gabriel is the AI agent.
But this reliance comes with a risk, and the use of agents in mass customer service requires monitoring of quality, security, and user experience.
“Gabriel is truly very intelligent, and a group of clients prefer to speak with Gabriel rather than with humans. He handles 99% of all customer interactions without any human intervention,” says Silva.
Single prompt
While there are currently several prompts for the different infrastructures of the financial sector, Rafael Stark, co-founder and CEO of Starkbank, has a vision of banking centered on a "single conversational prompt that abstracts complexity".
This will allow the user to perform complex banking tasks in a simple and immediate way, reducing friction in operations.
"The future will be a single prompt for you to ask anything about your bank account," Stark said.
The challenge remains regulatory and security-related, since conversational financial products require privacy controls, compliance, and resilience against fraud.
