Latin America VC Dealmaking Hits Slowest Level Since 2018
(Bloomberg) -- Venture capital dealmaking in Latin America has hit the slowest pace in six years, in part due to a pullback from US investors in the region.
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In the first six months of the year, there were 323 deals valued at $2 billion in Latin America, according to PitchBook data released Wednesday. The second quarter, with 142 instances of capital put into startups, is the slowest in the region since the fourth quarter of 2018.
“Wariness caused by the high number of deals in 2021 and 2022 that have led to few exits, as well as the pullback of US investors from the market” has contributed to the low volumes, Pitchbook analyst Kyle Sanford wrote in an analysis released alongside the data. Investors have stayed on the sidelines amid high rates in the US and global inflation, the report added.
Exits — just 30 valued at less than $36 million in the first half of the year — are at a crawl, too. If the current pace holds, it would be the lowest for Latin America exit value since 2016, Pitchbook said.
VC fundraising in Latin America through June 30 is $100 million, compared to $2.2 billion for all of 2023.
Globally, deals trended up, driven by a handful of large transactions. Global activity totaled $94.3 billion in the quarter, up almost 11% over the year-ago quarter.
(Updates with deal definition in paragraph two and global dealmaking figures in paragraph six.)
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