LatAm: the Vast Emerging Market in Innovation

Expand your business in LatAm, Commercial expansion in LatAm, Sales outsourcing in Latam, sales expansion in LatAm

LatAm is now fertile ground for technology companies disrupting important sectors such as fintech, agriculture, insurance and e-commerce, providing solutions to local and global problems. Although the region has had a reputation for being complicated and protectionist when it comes to setting up and doing business, investing time and money in establishing operations in LatAm can lead to pleasant surprises.

European entrepreneurs should be especially aware of the advantages of setting up in countries that have common languages with the Old Continent due to their shared history: French, Dutch and English are spoken in the region, although the vast majority of the Latin American population speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Startup accelerators are growing in number and investment volume in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Peru. Large corporations are investing in startups and scaleups strategically, or acquiring them, especially when they bring a solution that the internal bureaucracy of large companies would take years to reach or even approve.

While many may be attracted to London, Berlin or Amsterdam, Latin America can now compete strongly with the rest of the planet. Cities like Sao Paulo, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Monterrey and Medellin are becoming new start-up hubs awaiting big ideas and bold entrepreneurs with world-class private and public funding, mentoring programmes and accelerators, along with untapped or underserved markets in many industries with plenty of opportunities. So why not consider LATAM as your new branch destination and grow there?

WHERE ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES?

Sales outsourcing in LatAm: South America's largest economy, Brazil, saw total FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) grow by 78% to $50 billion (2021). Sectors benefiting include agribusiness, automotive manufacturing, electronics, information technology (IT) and financial services.

As for Central America, Mexico is the region's leading economy, which saw FDI increase by 13 per cent in 2021 to $32 billion, making it the second largest recipient in the sub-region, behind Brazil. The biggest jump was in information and communication technologies (ICT). So much so that the Chinese giant Huawei, for example, announced that it would open a USD 4.5 billion cloud data centre in the Central American country.

Another interesting sector is the services sector, which recorded the largest increase in net sales, up 12% to USD 6.4 billion in 2021, mainly in the financial and energy supply industries.

Foreign investments in the region are expected to continue to increase after they have already grown by 16%, having mainly gone to the automotive and transport industries, information and communication and extractive industries (mining and renewable energy activities).