Recommendations: Closing the LATAM Discount
20 recommendations across three arcs
What follows are 20 concrete recommendations across three arcs: what companies must do to become investable (Market Readiness), what unlocks investor confidence (Investor Readiness), and the regional coalition that ties it together, plus five further-research initiatives.
Market Readiness
Venture Building, Train, Fund, Validate
Scientific founders often lack core entrepreneurial skills, embed venture building as mainstream in universities and research institutes. Launch structured matchmaking to build balanced science–business founding teams, and plug them into sequenced pipelines of non-dilutive grants and CVC pilot lanes so they can validate products in real-world settings.
Metrics & Success Stories, Deep Tech KPI Frameworks
Investor skepticism arises from a lack of performance data and tangible success narratives. Collect, validate, and publicize key metrics (IRR, exit multiples, time-to-market) alongside high-impact regional case studies to illustrate Deep Tech ROI potential and enable like-for-like comparisons across markets.
Showcase & Visibility, Educate Privately, Convene Publicly
Limited understanding of Deep Tech investment constrains funding availability. Launch targeted educational initiatives for VCs, family offices, and CVCs to demystify Deep Tech fundamentals, showcase regional ROI data, and build confidence for larger, strategic funding commitments.
Impact-Driven Narratives, Deep Tech for SDGs
Lab-driven founders default to dense technical explanations. Embed structured storytelling programs to translate complex science into clear, emotionally resonant stories of global impact, turning bench-top breakthroughs into funding catalysts. Embedding frameworks like the SDGs is a plus.
Global Mindset, Language First, Structure Next
Small markets, fragmented rules, FX volatility, and language barriers nudge founders toward local-first. From day one, require English upskilling for founders and technical leads and adopt English-first artifacts, plus international structures (Delaware/UK holding with local subsidiaries, early USPTO/EPO filings) to reduce diligence friction and speed cross-border commercialization.
Investor Readiness
R&D Skepticism, Regional International Scientific Advisory Boards
Persistent doubts about LATAM’s early-stage science slow diligence and capital. Establish vertical-specific Regional International Scientific Advisory Boards pairing global experts with top LATAM scientists to run TRL-3–5 peer reviews, issue endorsement seals, provide targeted support, and publish an annual "State of Deep Tech Science" brief.
Uneven Clinical Trials, Alignment Through Interoperability
Early-stage ventures struggle to attract international capital due to country-specific regulations. Adopt a "global-first" compliance strategy, aligning with the FDA/EMA from day one, while exploring Special Economic Zones to compress permit cycles, and advocate for mutual recognition of scientific approvals across LATAM states.
Regulatory Portability, The 34th Regime
LATAM’s policy landscape is a patchwork. Champion a voluntary, pan-LATAM "34th Regime" single-startup status, modeled on Europe’s 28th, for mutual recognition, regional sandboxes, standardized digital filings, and portable approvals; constitute it via a plurilateral (CELAC / Pacific Alliance) and pilot on existing rails.
Corporate Venture Capital, Matchmaking Bridges & Observatory
CVC backup is no longer optional. Stand up a neutral, region-wide CVC Bridge to professionalize matchmaking through sector pitch days, diligence-ready data-room templates, and pilots on corporate testbeds. Anchor it with a CVC × Deep Tech Observatory tracking participation, time-to-deal, survival, and procurement conversion.
Social Clusters, Guilds & Ecosystem-as-a-Service
R&D must be paired with social infrastructure. Beyond shared labs, build curated, mixed domestic–international founder cohorts and consolidate Ecosystem-as-a-Service operators that convene academia, founders, corporates, policymakers, and governments; run recurring peer forums and clinics and maintain warm-intro circuits.
Regional Coalition
Anchor Public R&D to a Sovereign-Tech Agenda
Fragmented, short-term public funding limits LATAM’s strategic impact. Work with public institutions to place strategic Deep Tech fields on the same footing as critical infrastructure, rolling out upgraded Special Economic Zones, 1:1 matching-funds, and sovereign co-investment vehicles that channel long-term R&D budgets.
Pensions, A Fund-of-Funds for Domestic Deep Tech
On top of public funding, establish an independently managed fund-of-funds that mobilizes a slice of pension assets into domestic Deep Tech via vetted specialist GPs. Modeled after France’s Tibi initiative and the UK’s Mansion House reforms, advocate for local co-investment and procurement links, turning public budgets into catalytic patient capital.
Geopolitical Lens, Strategic Autonomy
The tech order is being reordered, China’s scale-up, U.S.–EU realignments, and the rise of middle powers create parallel tracks for capital, supply chains, and standards. Establish a dedicated working group to map flows, stress-test partnerships, and broker corridors (SEZs, joint labs, procurement pilots, standards MOUs) with superpowers and middle powers alike. Publish quarterly heatmaps and deal playbooks.
Research & Visibility, Open Data Commons & Grants Portal
LATAM lacks a shared evidence base and a clear window into non-dilutive capital. Build an open-access data commons, standardized stats, deal/IP registries, dashboards, and case studies, to cut diligence friction, paired with a unified grants portal that normalizes funding types, ticket sizes, eligibility, and deadlines, with AI application assistants.
Forge a Pan-LATAM Deep-Tech Forum
LATAM’s event surge is fragmented; launch a single, rotating flagship co-branded by leading funds, accelerators, and alliances to pool sponsors, attract international LPs/CVCs, and project one regional narrative. Anchor the forum with annual KPI releases so it becomes the region’s measurable, go-to platform for deep-tech scale.
Further Research Initiatives
Extended Funders Mapping
Build a living registry of VC/CVC/family offices/sovereign funds active in LATAM Deep Tech. Deliver a directory with tags (sector, stage, ticket, geo), an investor-roadshow calendar, and a submission form, updated quarterly via web-scrapes, press tracking, and partner validations.
Deep Tech LATAM Discount Index
Across all sectors, LATAM assets trade at –50% vs. global peers. Deep Tech likely mirrors this gap, yet no standardized index exists. Build an MSCI-style, repeatable framework to quantify valuation gaps and frictions, with an open methodology fed by regulator stats, deal-level data, and founder/investor surveys.
CVC Survival Effect
In Europe, CVC-backed startups show roughly half the bankruptcy rate of non-CVC peers. LATAM lacks an equivalent measure. Measure survival, time-to-next-round, and bankruptcy rates for CVC-backed vs. non-CVC startups, producing a matched dataset with hazard ratios and sector breakdowns.
Internal Rate of Return
In Europe and the U.S., Deep Tech funds outperform traditional tech by 7% in average net IRR (McKinsey). LATAM lacks comparable, region-specific data. Establish a LATAM benchmark to contextualize performance and strengthen the case for channeling patient capital into deep tech.
$1 Test, LATAM vs. Global Gross Average Return
SOSV reported a 72% gross average return on its LATAM Deep Tech portfolio between 2015–2023, but it is a single-manager statistic. To make a credible regional case, build a $1 ROI Test comparing LATAM to matched US/EU/Asia baskets, and report MOIC/ROI with confidence bands.