LatAm Tech Weekly
#193: ICONIQ's 2025 State of AI Report, First look in Q2 2025 Markets & VC figures, deals of the week... and much more!
Weekly writing about what is happening in LatAm tech. By day, I work at Itau Unibanco. By night, I am reading and learning about technology in general (now, with a focus on AI). During the weekends, I’m writing the LatAm Tech Weekly.
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Happy Sunday!
Freeeezing in São Paulo! As many of you know, I’m a carioca — which means I’m from Rio and, of course, way more sensitive to the cold than my paulista friends. Still, I survived the week layered up in five pieces of clothing and even slept in my gym top and hoodie just to force myself into my early morning runs. I know, I’m probably exaggerating (and maybe a little crazy), but the upside is I got my 50km in for the week — and powered through long work hours thanks to generous doses of caffeine!
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Opinions expressed here are solely my own and does not represent those of people, institutions, organizations that I may or may not be associated with in any capacity, unless explicitly stated.
It feels like every week there’s a new — and solid — AI report coming out. I’ve been making an effort to read through all of them because I genuinely find the topic fascinating and worth the time. The upside of diving into so many reports (and listening to daily AI podcasts) is that I can jump around and skip over sections I’ve already seen — or just read last week — and focus on what’s actually new in each one. This week’s deep dive: Iconiq’s 2025 State of AI Report: The Builder’s Playbook.
The good news is the same goes for you: if you’ve been following along, I’ll focus only on what’s new (at least to me — and, by extension, to you as a reader of this newsletter) and what I think is worth sharing after everything I’ve covered so far. So, without further ado — let’s dig in!
Important note: If you’re here mainly for my VC and tech market update, hang tight — right after the details on the Iconiq report, I’ll dive into the state of venture for Q2 2025.
Unlike Coatue’s EMW deck or Mary Meeker’s BOND AI report, this document takes a different approach. It’s based on proprietary April 2025 survey results from 300 executives at software companies, along with in-depth interviews with AI leaders across the ICONIQ community. The result is a tactical roadmap for translating generative AI capabilities into durable business advantage.
What stands out is that — across every dimension, from infrastructure to GTM and talent — the report highlights that leading AI builders aren’t defined just by model sophistication, but by their strategic agility, cost discipline, and ability to experiment fast.
1. Moving from Hype to Hands-On Execution
The difference between AI-native and AI-enabled companies is crucial.
✅ AI-native companies are businesses that are built from the ground up with AI at their core. AI isn’t just a tool they use — it’s embedded into their products, services, and operating models from day one. These companies design their strategies, processes, and teams around AI capabilities, and their value proposition fundamentally depends on AI.
✅ AI-enabled companies, on the other hand, are more traditional businesses that integrate AI into existing products, services, or workflows to enhance performance. AI helps these companies improve efficiency, decision-making, or customer experience — but AI isn’t the foundation of the business itself.
ICONIQ emphasizes that while both types can succeed, AI-native companies tend to move faster, operate leaner, and often have a structural edge in innovation and cost efficiency.
2. AI-Native Firms Are 3× Faster
47% of AI‑native companies are in full scale vs just 13% for AI‑enabled counterparts .
These firms invest heavily in agentic workflows (autonomous, multi-step agents) – ~80% do so.
OpenAI’s GPT models continue to be the most popular model; however, many companies are increasingly adopting a multi-model approach to AI products across use cases. They deploy multi-model architectures, averaging 2.8 models per customer-facing product.
3. Pricing Models Reflect AI’s Economics
AI features typically bundled into premium tiers today, but 37% plan to introduce usage-based or outcome-based pricing within 12 months.
4. Talent: The Bottleneck
High-growth firms allocate 20–30% of engineering staff to AI (up to 37%) .
However, hiring AI/ML engineers takes over 70 days, with 54% saying they’re falling behind.
5. Budgets Shifting: Cloud > Talent
R&D budgets now allocate 10–20% to AI development, rising across all revenue brackets .
Early-stage costs are dominated by talent, while mature products incur higher cloud, inference, and governance costs .
6. Internal AI Adoption: Access ≠ Usage
Around 70% of employees have access to internal AI tools, but only 50% use them regularly .
Organizations with high adoption support 7+ internal use cases, achieving 15–30% productivity gains.
State of Venture Q2 2025
As June comes to an end, so does the second quarter. Suddenly we are in the second half of the year - and I can say that markets seem to be (at least) looking positive. The Global Markets Snapshot by Pitchbook provide valuable data that corroborates with this statement. The S&P 500 rose approximately 10.6% in Q2, bringing its YTD gain to ~5.5%, while NASDAQ surged on AI and tech stocks. The S&P closed June at record highs — around 6,204 (~0.5% up on June 30) and the Dow hovered just below its all-time high. The equity rally — especially in AI/tech stocks — was supported by easing global trade tension, bullish investor sentiment, and promising macro indicators.
Looking at the venture world, it was a positive one. U.S. IPO and M&A activity rebounded sharply post-“Liberation Day” tariffs. In H1 2025, 174 companies raised over $31 billion via IPOs—marking the strongest first-half performance since 2021. Big names included Venture Global ($1.75B), CoreWeave ($1.57B), and Circle Internet Group ($1.21B). With IPO and M&A corridors reopening, liquidity for VCs is finally catching up—especially for AI-native startups and large private equity-backed companies. This is specially important for LatAm Tech - as things start improving in the U.S., we might see the IPO window opening in Brazil towards the end as well as an increase in the venture volume.
Moving on and focusing on venture, PitchBook reports $101.5 billion invested across 9,049 deals in Q2, totaling $230 billion across nearly 19,355 deals in H1 2025. North America drove the growth. AI-themed startups accounted for 53% of global VC deal value and 35.6% of deal count, with the U.S. share even higher at 64% of total VC investment.
Latin America saw around US$1.1 billion invested in Q2, bringing the year’s total to US$2.9 billion — already well ahead of 2024’s H1 mark of US$2.2 billion. AI is clearly asserting its dominance locally too: 23.2% of all Q2 deals in LatAm went to the sector, compared to 35% in North America.
Keep in mind, these numbers are still an early look — I expect to have more granularity next week, with a clearer sense of what happened across sectors. Stay tuned!
General news:
Skincare is booming in Brazil, with the beauty market expected to hit $32B by 2027 — but intimate care is only now getting serious attention. Startups like Nuudo and Feel are breaking taboos with targeted products for men and women. Nuudo’s trimming tech protects delicate skin, while Feel blends natural formulas and sleek design for female wellness. Both are addressing massive unmet needs and reshaping self-care. 🇧🇷
Brazil’s proptech Rooftop is launching a microfranchise model to scale its HomeCash product, aiming to move over R$50M in 2025. The model links luxury home-backed transactions to listed real estate funds — an industry first — giving homeowners 60% upfront with repurchase options. 🇧🇷
Prex is expanding to Paraguay as its fifth market, strengthening its LatAm footprint with digital wallets, payments, remittances, and investments for underserved users. 🇺🇾 🇵🇾
Online betting in Brazil is booming, with monthly volumes above R$30B — but it's fueling personal debt. A Serasa survey found 44% have bet to pay bills; 57% of defaulters were debt-free before gambling. Monest’s AI agent Mia helps with empathetic debt renegotiation. 🇧🇷
Mercado Pago captured 10% of Brazil’s card acquiring market, driven by SME growth (41% YoY) and bundled services like POS, credit, and management software. 🇧🇷
Brazil’s Federal Revenue will adopt alphanumeric CNPJ IDs for new businesses starting July 2026, modernizing registrations as numeric combinations run out. 🇧🇷
Deals:
Tapi acquired the bill pay and cash handling operations of Mastercard-owned Arcus in Mexico, gaining a major cash-in/cash-out network and expecting $5.5B in volume by year-end. 🇦🇷 🇲🇽
Venturance sold its majority stake in Chile’s Talana to Norway’s Visma, strengthening Visma’s HR tech footprint in LatAm. 🇨🇱
Go Bravo secured a $10B COP extension from Sura Invest to help Colombians resolve consumer debt, aiming to recover $80B COP for the financial system. 🇨🇴
China’s tech giants are back in deal mode after regulatory crackdowns. Tencent acquired Ximalaya for $1.3B, Alibaba pledged $53B for AI infrastructure, and both are consolidating assets to build national champions. 🇨🇳
General news:
AcertPix is gaining ground in fraud prevention with Skia, a new AI-powered platform using voice, image, and text to automate checks and boost conversions. Already profitable, it serves 3 of Brazil’s top 5 banks and plans to double operations in 2025. 🇧🇷
Best Place to Live® is rapidly expanding across LatAm, now in 5 countries with 450+ certified real estate projects. 🇨🇱 🇲🇽 🇦🇷
BNDES is considering a R$500M–R$1B fund focused on AI and data centers as part of a broader R$10B return to equity investments. 🇧🇷
Finco Pay became Mexico’s newest licensed IFPE under the Fintech Law, showing continued regulatory momentum. 🇲🇽
Latin American currencies mostly strengthened in H1 2025 as the U.S. dollar weakened; Brazil’s real and Mexico’s peso led gains. 🇱🇦
Brazil’s Open Finance added 11 major institutions, expanding coverage by 36M users and boosting credit portability potential. 🇧🇷
Deals:
Indecx and Track are merging to create Brazil’s largest CX analytics firm, with 1,000 clients in 35 countries. The R$300M deal focuses on LatAm expansion and global ambitions. 🇧🇷
Grammarly acquired Superhuman to shift from writing assistant to full productivity suite with AI-powered communication tools. 🇺🇸
AlugaMais raised R$10M from SRM Ventures to grow its rental advance service and automate leasing with AI. 🇧🇷
xAI raised another $10B, bringing its total to $16B in under a year, fueling Grok and Colossus supercomputer development. 🇺🇸
Selbetti acquired Eiprice to strengthen its retail tech unit with AI-powered e-commerce pricing intelligence. 🇧🇷
General News:
Brazil’s financial system was hit by a major cyberattack, with over R$1B stolen from reserve accounts via a C&M Software vulnerability. Funds were converted to crypto; no end-customer accounts were affected. 🇧🇷
OpenAI is moving into enterprise consulting, offering custom GPT-4o projects starting at $10M. Clients include the U.S. Department of Defense and Grab. The move puts OpenAI in direct competition with Palantir and Accenture as it chases Altman’s $125B revenue goal. 🇺🇸
Figma filed for IPO, aiming to raise up to $1.5B. It posted $749M in 2024 revenue with 91% gross margin, returning to profitability by late 2024. 🇺🇸
Ligo launched an interoperable QR code in Peru, enabling instant payments without banks or POS devices, to drive financial inclusion. 🇵🇪
99Food relaunched in Brazil with a pilot in Goiânia, promising higher courier pay, but workers report missing payments and poor support. 🇧🇷
Instituto Caldeira is accelerating the global expansion of Brazilian startups, connecting founders to hubs like Silicon Valley, Berlin, and Lisbon. 🇧🇷
Deals:
Klar raised $190M in Series C, boosting valuation to $800M+ and moving closer to unicorn status. 🇲🇽
Plata raised $120M in senior unsecured notes to fund growth and refinance debt as it operates as Banco Plata. 🇲🇽
General news:
Mercado Pago launched new POS software for Mexican SMEs, integrating payments, inventory, and staff management. 🇲🇽
Wise launched Rende+, letting users earn returns on foreign balances, and named Brazil its LatAm tech hub. 🇧🇷
C&M Software issued a statement after a major fraud, clarifying that client breaches were exploited—not system hacks. 🇧🇷
Stablecoins are gaining traction for cross-border payments, but hacks, transparency, and regulation remain challenges. 🇱🇦
Tech IPOs are picking up in the U.S., boosting optimism among Brazilian founders and bankers. 🇺🇸 🇧🇷
Latin America’s average country risk fell in H1 2025, led by Ecuador’s bond rally, though Argentina’s spread rose. 🇱🇦
Brazil’s Central Bank suspended Transfeera, Nuoro Pay, and Sofffy from Pix following the C&M-linked hacker attack. 🇧🇷
JPMorgan sees stablecoin growth reaching only $500B by 2028, far below bullish forecasts. 🌎
Deals:
MySide raised R$5M, extending its seed round to R$12M to scale its AI-enabled buyer-focused platform. 🇧🇷
Lance! acquired Arquiba to strengthen its fan engagement and loyalty platform. 🇧🇷
FiT acquired Colombia’s Neurona to expand its payments infrastructure presence in LatAm. 🇨🇴
Ursula raised R$20M to scale its emotionally intelligent AI platform, backed by Prosus. 🇧🇷
Mibanco and trii launched a digital term deposit to drive savings in Colombia. 🇨🇴
General news:
Greenoaks Capital raised $2.5B for its sixth and largest fund, targeting SaaS and fintechs globally. 🇺🇸
São Paulo police arrested a C&M Software employee accused of aiding hackers in stealing nearly R$1B from financial institutions. The scheme allegedly involved insider access sold for R$15K. 🇧🇷
Bitcoin surged to $109K, near its $112K all-time high, driven by strong U.S. jobs data, easing trade tensions, and ETF inflows. 🇺🇸
The European Commission reaffirmed its AI Act timeline despite industry calls for delay; general-purpose AI rules take effect August 2024. 🇪🇺
NEO Estech announced a R$21M expansion plan through 2027 to grow in Brazil’s food retail sector, serving clients like Carrefour. 🇧🇷
AI’s power demand is triggering blackout warnings as AI data centers strain grids; Brazil’s renewable mix positions it as an AI infra hub. 🌎
Deals:
The Led acquired Retail Media, expanding to 2,200 stores and planning R$200M in investments by 2028. 🇧🇷
Rhino launched Rhino For Business after a $1M round, offering armored corporate transport. 🇧🇷
AXS Energia raised R$550M from AZ Quest Infra to scale solar and clean energy projects. 🇧🇷
You will see below an updated list of events, including for the second half of the year. If I forgot your event, and you want to include it - please sure to send those my way asap!
Cubo Conecta 2025
Date: September 2025 (exact dates to be announced)
Location: São Paulo, SP
Description: Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Cubo Conecta is the flagship event of Cubo Itaú, bringing together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, and innovation leaders from across Latin America. The event offers over 90 hours of content and facilitates more than 5,000 digital connections, highlighting the potential of the technology and innovation ecosystem in the region.
Brazil Climate Summit 2025
Date: September 13–14, 2025
Location: New York, NY, USA
Description: The Brazil Climate Summit focuses on Brazil's role in the global green transition, emphasizing the importance of private sector involvement and international capital to accelerate low-carbon businesses. The event gathers leaders from various sectors to discuss sustainable development strategies.
More infoGartner CIO & IT Executive Conference 2025
Date: September 22–24, 2025
Location: São Paulo, SP
Description: A gathering of CIOs and IT leaders to discuss digital transformation, organizational leadership, and innovation strategies across industries.
More infoMoney 20/20 USA 2025
Date: October 26–29, 2025
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Description: One of the world’s leading fintech and payments conferences, Money 20/20 gathers global leaders across banking, payments, tech, and startups to explore the future of money and financial services.
More infoWeb Summit Lisbon 2025
Date: November 10–13, 2025
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Description: One of the world’s most influential tech conferences, Web Summit Lisbon connects 70,000+ attendees from startups, enterprises, and media to discuss trends shaping the tech industry.
More infoBrazil Tech Summit 2025
Date: December 9, 2025
Location: São Paulo, SP
Description: Part of the Global Startup Ecosystem Series, Brazil Tech Summit brings together entrepreneurs, government leaders, and investors to foster tech-driven innovation across Latin America.
More info
“Missionaries will outlast mercenaries.” —
Sam Altman, on the AI talent wars between OpenAI and Meta