By Carlos Moreira | Crunchbase | September 13, 2021
To find the best new market for your mediatech company, you just have to head south—to Latin America. In the past five years, VC activity in Latin America has exploded. The area is now home to a stable of 23 unicorns, including digital banking provider Nubank and online food delivery platform Rappi. Last year alone, the region tallied $4 billion in deals for the second year in a row and closed a record 488 deals, while its startup exits netted an eye-popping $11 billion.
So Latin America has an impressive group of highly valued homegrown startups—but that’s not all it’s known for. When foreign companies expand to Latin America, they too have seen their growth in the region soar, sometimes even outpacing their growth at home. Mediatech in particular is having a moment in Latin America as internet and mobile phone usage skyrocket. There’s never been a better time for media and advertising innovators to enter the market.
Here’s why.
High growth in a less-developed ecosystem: One company that made the leap to Latin America is Silicon Valley-based short video startup Firework, which partnered with Brazilian media giant Globo as part of the newly launched Globo Partner Program. In just six months, Firework’s Latin American user base increased 50x.
After expanding to Latin America last year, Firework, which has been developing a solution for decentralized short video distribution on the open web, has expanded its global reach to 250 million people per month, making it the largest decentralized short-video platform. Latin America now accounts for 10 percent of Firework’s global traffic.
And Firework’s success is hardly an outlier. In fact, it’s a case study in why startups and VCs—especially those in the mediatech space—need to seize Latin America’s market moment.
