Why LatAm Founders Have a Unique Edge in AI

When NFX recently highlighted why Israeli founders have an edge in AI, it struck a chord. We agree, and we also believe Latin American founders carry their own distinctive AI advantage, forged under very different conditions.

Here’s why:

• Dealing with bureaucracy makes us imaginative.

• Volatility trains us to pivot without hesitation.

• Uneven markets force us to build for scale.

• Scarcity of capital sharpens our efficiency and resourcefulness.

Navigating Bureaucracy Breeds Imagination

Latin America is a masterclass in friction. Founders here grow up battling red tape at every turn.

But instead of being paralyzed by it, we learn to invent around it.

For many of us, AI became the missing lever, turning constant obstacles into opportunities for scalable solutions.

Take WiseCricket, born from the necessity to be compliant with the many accounting, financial, and fiscal law in Mexico. With AI, WiseCricket scans company data and helps them quickly spot and solve discrepancies and errors.

Or Finkargo, which tackled Latin America’s fractured customs and paper-heavy processes. Its founders built a digital import financing platform with automated credit scoring, shipment tracking, and integrated logistics. What once took banks weeks or even months can now happen in 48 hours.

Volatility Makes Us Pivot Ready

Economic swings are not “black swan” events in LatAm.
They’re more like pigeons – daily reality.

Currency crashes, political shifts, and policy swings force founders to think short and long term simultaneously.

Take it from startups like Agent Astra, working in the import/export industry. Agent Astra took foreign commerce ups and downs and developed an AI workforce that supports companies, automating up to 94% of back-office tasks. What took two hours now takes five minutes – not only freeing up valuable employee resources but also reducing costly errors due to lack of visibility of real-time industry changes.

That builds a rare muscle: detachment from features, born from obsession with value. Pivoting or expanding is not an emergency; it is baked into LatAm’s DNA.

This mindset is gold in AI, where every new model reshapes the playing field.

Consider Darwin AI, founded by Ezequiel Sculli and Lautaro Schiaffino. They started with AI “employees” for marketing. As models matured, they rapidly expanded into inbound and outbound sales, collections, customer support, and beyond, serving businesses in more than 30 countries. Darwin recently raised a $4.5M seed round led by Base10 Partners.

Uneven Markets Force Us to Scale Through Nuance

Latin America is fragmented: currencies, infrastructures, and customer behaviors differ widely, sometimes even across neighborhoods. Access to products and services is uneven at best.

Top founders see that patchwork as a moat. By solving a problem in one fragmented corner, they uncover scalable patterns.

AI takes this to the next level: training models for specific industries, geographies, or use cases creates powerful defensibility.

We have seen this with startups like Hyperplane in banking, exited to Nubank, Arvo in health insurance, Conectamos in transportation, and BeConfident in language learning.

LatAm founders thrive in nuance, making them naturals at building AI solutions that start local but scale globally.

Scarcity Builds Efficiency and Staying Power

Compared to India, venture capital in Latin America remains scarce. As a share of GDP, LatAm VC activity is only a fraction of India’s (0.1% in LatAm vs 0.7% in India). And yet, despite this funding gap, the region has produced more billion-dollar exits and a larger total market cap than many of its peers.

This scarcity forged a generation of capital-efficient founders. Every dollar must work harder. Every hire must compound. Every experiment must pay back fast.

While today’s AI race often feels like “raise more, burn more,” LatAm founders do not know that privilege. Instead, they are primed to build leaner, more resilient companies that last.

The LatAm AI Edge

AI magnifies the qualities needed to turn friction into advantage: imagination, adaptability, scale thinking, and scrappiness.

For Latin American founders, these are not buzzwords. They are survival traits, honed by navigating bureaucracy, volatility, unevenness, and scarcity.

So when you see some of the world’s most resilient, imaginative, and globally ambitious AI companies emerging from Latin America, do not be surprised. They have been preparing for this race all along.