It's not new that the United States attracts entrepreneurs, investors, and technology executives from other parts of the globe willing to settle in the country and breathe the air of the world's leading innovation hub. And, within this landscape, the presence of Brazilians is gaining increasing momentum.
This is one of the conclusions of the Brazil Tech Diaspora in the USA , a groundbreaking study conducted by Endeavor Brazil. Exclusively previewed by NeoFeed , the survey identified 200 Brazilians – of whom more than 140 are entrepreneurs – currently living in the United States for this purpose.
By compiling a series of public data, the research also established a connection with one of the main factors that have led Brazilians to stamp their passports to venture into the American technology ecosystem: the boom in artificial intelligence (AI).
“The dynamics of AI make it possible to be faster, less resource-intensive, and cheaper when it comes to starting and growing businesses,” says Maria Teresa Fornea, CEO of Endeavor Brazil, to NeoFeed . “And this stimulates the desire to start a global business. It's become easier to play the game.”
The decision to focus the study on the United States came with the realization that, with AI, venture capital has once again concentrated in the country, after a period in which these resources began to be directed to other centers as well, such as China.
Translating this trend into figures, 79% of the $159 billion in global funding for AI companies in 2025 went to companies based in the US, according to the Crunchbase portal. Of that total, more than 75% was invested in California.
“In terms of power, the main destinations would be the US and China,” says Fornea. “But in China, there isn’t the same level of investment in entrepreneurship. It’s a different dynamic. So, people want to be in the US, and I feel that this movement will be more prevalent than in past cycles.”
According to her, one of the figures that reinforces the US as the main center of attraction for entrepreneurs from other regions is the fact that 60% of the leading AI companies based in the country have at least one immigrant founder.
In this context, Endeavor's survey shows that AI is also a significant presence in the projects of these Brazilians in the US. According to the study, 49% of these entrepreneurs are developing businesses with this technology as their core business .
Similarly, the distribution of these entrepreneurs is quite aligned with this AI race, which has reinforced the relevance of an innovation hub in the US, California, which is home to 39.5% of companies run by Brazilians – of the companies that have AI at their core, 45.8% are in the region.
Other locations include Florida, with 24.5%, and New York, with 12.9%. On this map, California has some better-known examples, such as Brex , founded by Henrique Dugubras and Pedro Franceschi in 2017 and sold in January of this year to Capital One in a US$5.1 billion transaction.
In New York, the American headquarters of more established Brazilian companies like VTEX and Wellhub , there's even a unicorn: YipitData, a market research and data analytics company co-founded by Brazilian Vinicius Vacanti, which has already attracted nearly US$400 million in investments.
Examples are not limited to these regions. Founded in 2019 by Brazilian Igor Marinelli and American Jim Moran, Tractian, which uses AI to monitor industrial equipment, is based in Atlanta, Georgia, and has already raised over US$180 million from funds such as General Catalyst and DGF.
At the same time, sectors such as healthcare and biotech, both with an 8.1% share of ventures run by Brazilians, are also beginning to gain prominence. One of the names that has contributed to this evolution is OneSkin.
Founded in 2016 by Carolina Reis de Oliveira, Alessandra Zonari, Juliana Carvalho, and Mariana Boroni, and headquartered in San Francisco, the biotech startup has already raised over US$46 million from investors such as Prelude Growth Partners and Selva Ventures.
Brazilian seasoning
In this exchange, there is also room for Brazilian flair. These businesses are primarily concentrated in segments where the country excels and has greater aptitude, such as business software and services, with a 48.1% share, and financial software and services, with 18.5%.
One example is the fintech SellersFi, founded in 2017 by Ricardo Pero, Alessandro Novaes, and Fabio Knijnik, which has already raised over US$400 million in equity and debt from names like Citi and MUFG Innovation Partners.
“The fintech industry and banking infrastructure in Brazil is much more advanced,” says Fornea. “And there are examples like Blip and other Brazilian companies that are working with Meta and American telcos to bring integrations, for example, with WhatsApp, which don’t yet exist in the US.”
Despite these advances, the study points out that access to capital is still unequal throughout the stages of investment raising by these companies. Resources are more concentrated in the early stage, with 32.9% of fundraising in pre-seed and 24.2% in Series A investments.
“This continuity in other stages needs to evolve further,” says Fornea. “But those who are making things happen don’t have capital pains. And, in any case, access to resources is bizarrely different compared to other markets.”
Fornea also highlights another point of concern amidst this diaspora: the worry that this movement will be restricted to the American market and will not bring positive repercussions to this ecosystem in Brazil. She points, however, to a favorable factor in this context.
“This movement on a more global scale is less tied to specific markets. So, these entrepreneurs can return to Brazil,” he says. “We want to build this bridge so that companies in Brazil have a high standard and not a yardstick that is out of step with what is happening in the world, especially in AI.”
