Startups in Brazil attracted record-breaking levels of funding in 2021, with over $9.4 billion raised in the innovation market — almost 2.6 times more than the $3.5 billion notched in 2020, according to The Rio Times and other reports on Thursday (Jan. 13).
According to data from Distrito, there were 779 funding rounds in Brazil over the past year, with 46 happening in December alone totaling $555 million. FinTechs in Brazil garnered the most investments in 2021, reaching $3.7 billion. Retail startups followed with $1.3 billion in funding.
See also: Global Startups Raised $621B in 2021
Brazil also had a record-breaking 247 mergers and acquisitions in 2021, and 10 Brazilian firms achieved unicorn status — C6 Bank, unico, Olist, Mercado Bitcoin, Facily, Freight.com, Cloudwalk, Merama, MadeiraMadeira and Hotmart. There are now a total of 21 companies in the country valued at more than $1 billion, according to the report.
Much of the venture capital funding in Brazilian startups came from outside the country and included SoftBank, Tiger Global Management, Tencent, Accel, Ribbit Capital and QED Investors, among others.
“Most of the population is underserved in almost every category of consumption. Likewise, most businesses lack modern technology-based solutions,” Shu Nyatta, a partner at SoftBank who leads a $5 billion fund for Latin America, said in the Distrito report.
Read more: Europe VC Ecosystem Smashes Records In Q3 2021, Setting The Stage For Promising 2022 Deals
Accel’s Ethan Choi said in the report that the Latin American innovation market is quickly expanding because technology is now a part of almost every aspect of consumers’ lives, which upped the demand for digital services and, in turn, led to more startups and investors.
There are also a larger variety of investors backing Brazilian startups, with 544 different firms backing new companies as of the end of September, compared to 404 in all of 2020.
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