On the heels of a record US$2b invested by venture capital firms in Latin America in 2018 (an increase from US$500m in 2015) and the announcement of the new US$5b Softbank Latin American Tech Fund, LAVCA published an Inaugural Survey of Latin American Startups.
The Inaugural Survey of Latin American Startups captures key insights from 227 startups, with 88% of responses coming from Founders and C-level executives. The majority of responding startups have raised US$500k to US$100m+ in funding.
The survey was conducted by LAVCA in Q4 2018 and startups were verified by LAVCA’s research team across a range of primary and secondary sources. Results are reported in aggregate unless otherwise agreed with the startup.
Findings include:
- Job Creation: Participating Latin American startups have created 25,000+ current full-time jobs. Startups that have raised a minimum of US$500k create an average of 129 full-time jobs each, with 4 out of 5 of those employees based in the region.
- Entrepreneur Experience: 66% of participating founders have started multiple companies; 59% advise other startups.
- Revenues: 89% of startups reported positive net revenue growth for 2017-2018.
- Frontier Tech: 73% of startups across all sectors are using some form of big data, machine learning, or artificial intelligence.
- Impact: 59% of startups are measuring some form of impact; job creation and financial inclusion top the list.
- Diversity: 29% of startups said they’ve reached gender parity or greater in their workforce.
The survey was commissioned by Facebook.