During Hispanic Heritage Month, there’s a lot to celebrate when it comes to entrepreneurship. In the last decade, Hispanic entrepreneurs have created several ground-breaking and really innovative businesses, and many are now positioned to make a significant mark on the global stage.
Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina are among the most important Latin American startups in 2021, and we’ve grouped them together and ranked them by their respective values to give you an idea of their size and significance. Without further ado, here is a list of the most successful Hispanic businesses:
1. NU (Brazil)
Nu is a Brazilian fintech startup that was launched in May 2013 by David Velez (Colombia), Cristina Junqueira (Brazil), and Edward Wible (Brazil) (USA). According to David Velez, the story behind its conception stemmed from a poor experience at a Brazilian bank.
Velez and his colleagues had a simple strategy to get Nu Bank back on track: offer financial products with the lowest (and, in some cases, non-existent) costs and exceptional customer service, all digitally and without the need for a physical location.
Nu exclusively has activities in Colombia and Mexico outside of Brazil, with its technical wing situated in Germany and a technological development facility in Buenos Aires, Argentina. According to TIME magazine, it is also one of the top 100 most influential companies in the world.
2. Kavak (México)
After spending two years in Mexico, Venezuelan Carlos Garca launched Kavak, a used and pre-owned car trading company, in 2016. Loreanne Garca, who was the corporate strategy coordinator for Coca-Cola FEMSA, and Roger Lauhglin, who served as sales director of Linio, a company for which Carlos Garca also worked as Director for a while, founded the company with the current CEO.
Kavak’s basic principle is straightforward: buy used automobiles at reasonable costs, recondition them, and then resell them to clients for a small profit. Its idea is to “work smart and make it happen,” and it has paid off: the company has grown at a breakneck pace since its inception in 2016.
It now has five sites in Puebla, Monterrey, Guadalajara, and two in Mexico City, as well as one each in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, Brazil. In addition, the corporation operates five showrooms and four inspection centers in Mexico’s capital city.
3. Rappi (Colombia)
Rappi is one of Latin America’s most major delivery firms. Simón Borrero, Sebastián Meja, and Felipe Villamarn founded it in Colombia in 2015, and it is currently a prominent competitor in the distribution area.
The Rappi app operates similarly to other delivery services, allowing users to order things from supermarkets, restaurants, and pharmacies and have them delivered to their doorstep. Currently, the company operates in nine Latin American nations, with ambitions to grow into others as soon as possible.
Rappi holds the distinction of becoming the first Colombian unicorn firm to reach a valuation of $2 billion. It is now worth 5.2 billion dollars.
4. Wildlife Studios (Brazil)
Wildlife Studios was formed in 2011 in Brazil by Arthur Lazarte, Michael Mac-Vicar, and Victor Lazarte as one of the world’s largest mobile game producers.
It’s also one of the most successful businesses in the field. Since its beginning, the company has released more than 70 mobile games, with several of them attracting tens of millions of monthly users. This talent for creating popular games has resulted in quick growth and attracted investors. It was upgraded to the unicorn category after receiving a $60 million investment at the end of 2019.
5. Loft (Brazil)
Florian Hagenbuch (a German) and Mate Pencz (a Brazilian) founded Loft in Sao Paulo in 2018. (a Hungarian). It’s essentially an application that digitizes and simplifies the process of buying and selling real estate, similar to Zillow or Redfin.
Initially, the corporation operated as a property flipping business, purchasing, renovating, and reselling homes for a profit. It has since extended and updated its business strategy, and currently operates as a “multiple listing service” for real estate in Brazil, aggregating and acting as a one-stop shop for both homebuyers and sellers.