As a Silicon Valley-born investor living in “Silicon Aires”, it frustrates me to no end when people underestimate the incredible innovations in emerging markets like Latin America.
It’s clearly every investor’s prerogative to decide where they want to invest, but it’s high time that every investor understand the incredible value that emerging markets are producing.
In reality, 2017 was the first year that more of the largest IPOs in the internet sector globally came from emerging markets. Every year since then has continued in that vein. As Nazar Yasin, founder of Rise Capital, which invests in emerging markets, says “This trend isn’t going away.”
If you think about it for even a fraction of a second, it makes sense. Most GDP growth comes from emerging markets, and most global internet users live there. As Yasin says, “The future of market capitalization growth in the internet sector globally belongs to emerging markets.”
That said, becoming a unicorn in an emerging market takes resilience. Yasin says, “If you’re a startup in one of these markets, it’s like trying to grow a plant in the desert.” In an environment that demands more daily resilience, there is a different appetite for risk and innovation. I call this type of innovation resilience innovation, and I believe it leads to companies who can truly whether the storms to grow and prosper. In other words, the resilience innovation of emerging markets is the secret sauce.
In Silicon Aires, the startup scene is indeed “en fuego”.
(Insert flame emojis.)
If you’re not familiar with Argentina, it has historically boasted an out-sized number of Latin American unicorns.
The Famous Unicorns of Argentina
The Future Unicorns of Silicon Aires?
Contxto suggests some of these might up next:
Agree Market
Agree Market is the world’s “first global (agriculture) commodities marketplace,” to buy and sell grains, oilseeds, and their byproducts.
Dynami Battery Corp
Dynami develops thing lithium batteries tailored to products.
S4
S4 turns biological assets into “financial ones”. A boon for climate change.
Acordar
An AI-based trading platform for debt recovery and sales.
Quiena
Quiena is an online investment management company.
Brandtrack
Brandtrack does user-friendly curation of music.
Pobuca
CRM software using AI to help companies contact customers.
Apperto
Apperto is social media for commerce in small to medium-sized Argentine cities. (Think small-city, Argentine Groupon.)
Drixit
Drixit is all about sensor-based tech that tracks shipments.
Treggo
More shipment fun! Treggo facilitates the process in real-time and coordinates with Mercado Flex Shipping.
