As far as the innovation and venture capital investment ecosystem in Latin America is concerned, 2021 is being touted as the “year of records”. And those who expected that in November the VC injection in the region would slow down were wrong: the month not only reached a higher volume of dollars raised than in October, going from $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion, but the average round size jumped from $13 million to $31.9 million.
In October, there were 92 investment rounds in Latin America, while in November there were 76 of them: fewer rounds, but larger checks.
Thus, Latin American startups reach the final stretch of the year surpassing $1 billion in investments per month since February. For the sake of comparison, in 2020 this mark was surpassed only in September. These data are from the Startup Activity Report, issued by the Brazilian intelligence platform Sling Hub and obtained first-hand by LABS.
READ ALSO: Brazilian startups take 75% of the funding in Latin America in October
In this boiling scenario, with a lot of venture capital entering the region, Brazil continues to stand out, having secured 70% of the total volume tapped in November, or $988 million. The country also concentrated the vast majority of the mergers and acquisitions in November; only two of the 23 deals took place outside Brazil.
Rounds and unicorns
In all, there were 76 investment rounds in Latin America last month; 60 of them were held in Brazil and 10 in Mexico, followed by Chile (4), Colombia (1), and Argentina (1). The three greatest rounds, which together have gotten $576 million, more than 40% of the total investments in the entire region, went to Brazilian companies.
READ ALSO: Latin America goes from 2 to 34 unicorns in four years, says Sling Hub
The fintechs took the lion’s share of the investments, there were 30 rounds focused on companies in the sector; edtechs received five rounds; HRtechs, retail techs, and healthtechs got four rounds each. Another 23 funding rounds went to startups in various sectors.
Although fintechs are still the favorite sector for investors, the greatest checks in November went to a retail tech – the Brazilian startup Facily, which raised $250 million, an investment that brings it very close to unicorn status –, and to a Brazilian edtech called Ânima Educação, which secured $176 million.
READ ALSO: On the rise: CloudWalk spins up $150 million Series C and turns into Brazil’s new unicorn
The club of Latin American unicorns has welcomed a new member, and it is a Brazilian fintech: CloudWalk. The company landed a Series C led by Coatue and reached a valuation of $2.1 billion.

Local VCs led investments
When looking at the most active investors in November, there is an interesting change: if in October the largest investors (considering the number of rounds, not in volume invested) in Latin America were the Japanese group SoftBank and the US venture capital manager Tiger Global, in November this list was topped by local companies and venture capital funds: Kaszek leads with 6 startups invested, followed by Canary with 4, and by Norte Ventures, CapTable, and Valor Capital, the three tied with 3 rounds each.