Investment Boom: Brazilian Startups Raised US$3.5 Billion in 2020

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Last year, the country’s innovation companies raised a total of US$3.5 billion – 17% more than the US$2.97 billion in 2019. The data are from a survey conducted by Distrito, a startup that monitors the sector.

In addition to the higher amount, the year also stood out for the number of rounds. There were 469 launches against 408 last year. In December alone, US$580 million were allocated in 33 investment rounds.

“Given the social and economic scenario we had in 2020, there is no doubt that we had a surprising year for startups,” says Gustavo Gierun, co-founder of Distrito.

In the last month of the year, two fintechs (Creditas and C6) raised over US$240 million each. December numbers are second only to those of September when Neon and Vtex collected US$300 million and US$225 million, respectively.

In 2020, the younger startups in the early stages of funding (angel, pre-seed and seed) received the largest number of contributions. There were 337 rounds in these categories.

Nonetheless, the highest volume of investment is in the A to G Series and Private Equity rounds, which represent US$3.2 billion of the total.

The year also registered the record for mergers and acquisitions in the sector, with 163 transactions. The amount is 154% higher than in 2019, when 64 M&A were recorded.

The finance, IT and marketing sectors attracted the greatest interest from large companies in 2020, with over 20 transactions each.

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