How Latin America Has Become the Next Silicon Valley

In Latin America, success is breeding success — and the startup mindset within the region is accelerating.

Latin America is teeming with new ventures and innovative startups thanks to an environment that fosters entrepreneurship and attracts venture capital. Within every market in the region is an ecosystem where employees of successful startups like Nubank or MercadoLibre would eventually start their own companies, then become angel investors themselves once their ventures succeeded. This leads to not only increased innovation but also increased venture funding.

“In every one of these cities, there’s a Silicon Valley,” said EMQQ Global founder and CIO Kevin T. Carter. “This virtuous cycle is very robust everywhere.”

In Bogota, Colombia, for example, there are 800 venture-funded startups, a city in which 90% of purchases under $100 are in cash. One of these private startups that caught Carter’s eye during his trip to the region in March was Rappi, one of the biggest unicorns in Latin America. Rappi is a Bogota-based on-demand delivery company that specializes in “quick commerce,” or 10-minute deliveries.

“The energy in these startup communities is amazing,” Carter said.

The Next Frontier Internet & Ecommerce ETF (FMQQ) is designed to provide investors with exposure to the internet and e-commerce sectors of the developing world.

FMQQ seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Next Frontier Internet and Ecommerce Index (FMQQetf.com). Securities must meet a minimum of a $300 million market cap and pass a liquidity screen that requires a $1 million average daily turnover.

When the fund was launched in September, Carter said that the goal of FMQQ was to “be an attractive alternative for investors who want to capture the budding opportunities in these ‘next frontier’ markets and/or complement their Chinese tech allocations and balance out their current portfolio weightings.”

FMQQ has an expense ratio of 0.86%.

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