Fintech
The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America (LAVCA) predicts that the number of Smartphone owners will increase to 76% by 2025. With an estimated population over 626 million people, these technological shifts are tremendously helpful to fintech start-ups to build digital products and services such as mobile payments, digital banks, eWallets and more. Latin American financial regulators are increasingly drawn to the open banking playbook to break up bank monopolies and increase financial inclusion. IDB has also supported progress by providing technical assistance in various countries to develop public policies and regulation. This ecosystem has led to a 50x growth in fintech funding in the past 6 years.
There is a growing market for tech companies focusing on providing services for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and segments previously ignored by the traditional financial system.
Agtech
AgTech is a booster for global agricultural productivity in a sustainable way. With its
ramifications in foodtech, biotech, IoT, AI, genomics, sensoring, BigData, robotics and Microbiomes it expands rapidly and globally thanks to start-ups, funds and strategic players
investing billions of dollars in projects that apply science and technology to increase food
production and improve land productivity.
According to The United Nations the global food system will have 9.6 billion people to feed by
2050, which will require 60 to 70% more food than is produced today. Technology applied in
agriculture will be key to discover new ways to improve productivity while minimizing inputs,
managing costs and respecting the environment.
South America is one of the few regions of the world that has the opportunity to greatly expand
production and export the food surplus to the world. It benefits from land availability, agricultural
diversity and natural resource wealth (sufficient fresh water).
According to the BID, Latin America has 38% of the land destined to the agricultural sector and is the largest food supplier region in the world. In recent years it is immersed in a wave of
technological innovation in the field.
Many Latin American countries depend on agriculture to generate a significant portion of their GDP, exports, jobs and fiscal revenues; this socioeconomic environment is a driver that consolidates the region as one of the development hubs for high impact technology-based Ag companies.
Edtech
Investments in education technology, commonly known as Edtech, is becoming a global phenomenon. The market is projected to grow at 11% per annum to U$341 billion by 2025.
By 2035, there are expected to be 2.7 billion students worldwide and current physical structures are insufficient to cope with demand. This means leading education providers must seek new and technological ways such as AI, voice interfaces, machine learning and others, to address the student cost, access and ROI challenges and institutional efficiency, effectiveness and growth objectives.
Faculties worldwide have shown willingness to support less traditional and digital education models. About 65% support the use of open educational resources (OERs) in teaching, and 63% showed support for the competency-based education system.
Students are also interested in the use of different devices in the learning process as well as turning to online courses. Covid19 has accelerated the tendency towards distance learning further.
90% of the world's population under 30 is living in emerging markets, education and vocational training in the area will be led by mobile-first strategies that provide knowledge and skills when and where they're needed.
In Latin America, government focus on education increased significantly over the last two decades, becoming the fourth largest Edtech market in the world, with expectations for the e-learning market to generate revenues of over U$3 billion by 2023.
According to UNESCO, more than 12 million adults in 20 LatAm countries are participating in some form of online education. Millions of people are now accessing written materials, webinars, podcasts and collaborative software.
Besides an increase in mobile devices, the simplicity of studying online (versus a classroom setting), better job opportunities, among others, are other reasons why LatAm is turning to online educational resources. Colombia is the LatAm country with the highest search volumes for online courses.
The lack of infrastructure, insufficient financing, and the inability to keep educational courses and resources in line with the market demands of today are all driving the need for more e-learning opportunities, especially in emerging markets. Online education is often cheaper and faster in onboarding people to the educational system.
Proptech
According to Unissu there are currently around 350 PropTech companies across Brasil, México, Argentina, Chile and other LatAm countries. The region is in its infant stage of the technology - becoming aware, understanding needs and beginning to look for solutions.
Large amounts of data that are being generated, analyzed and applied by Proptech firms is producing a digital transformation of the real estate sector. This trend is enabled by a wide range of converging technologies: mobile, broadband, cloud, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT), blockchain, 3D printing and others.
Today's PropTech products or services have incredible potential to save time and money, improve workflow and streamline fundamental processes for the industry. The growing popularity of these technologies will create an on-demand real estate market that aligns with modern priorities of Latin American societies.