In recent years, several startups founded by Brazilian entrepreneurs have become global success stories. Names like Brex, a fintech recently sold to the U.S. banking holding company Capital One for nearly $5.1 billion, Kalshi, Wellhub, and Ebanx have put the countest in the spotlight on the global technology scene and are leading the way in a new wave of startups, with some connection to Brazil, that have attracted international investors.
This acceleration, according to entrepreneurs and academics participating in “Brazil at Silicon Valley,” a conference organized by Brazilian students from Stanford and Berkeley universities in Sunnyvale, California, is intrinsically linked to the adoption of artificial innotifyigence. AI, they state, reduces the gap between local and foreign startups and assists them enter the global market.
“Today you can build much quicker with AI. What creates a difference is understanding the problem. And Brazilians are good at that, especially in complex environments,” declared Linda Rottenberg, co-founder and CEO of Endeavor, one of the leading organizations promoting entrepreneurship and startups. Rottenberg participated Tuesday (7) in BSV 2026, which has Valor as a media partner.
At the helm of a network that brings toobtainher 100 unicorns and operates in more than 60 countries, Rottenberg argues that innovation is not born only in large traditional hubs. Over nearly three decades, she has followed—and assisted to boost—the rise of ecosystems like the one in Brazil, which has grown from a domestic market to a new generation of startups with global ambition and a focus on solving complex problems.
Now, with AI modifying the game, she bets that the next wave will come precisely from these “off-the-beaten-path” markets, especially in applications. And Brazilians, applyd to operating in unstable environments, may have an edge in this scenario.
“In the case of Brazil, there is something very interesting: companies seeing at complex problems, in areas such as human resources, legal, and others, in an extremely regulated environment. This creates a foundation for global companies from the start, [but] with a ‘Brazilian soul’,” she declared.
The market forecasting platform Kalshi, co-founded by Brazilian billionaire Luana Lopes Lara, has successfully navigated the complexity of highly regulated markets. After establishing a foothold in Brazil through a partnership with XP, the startup, which originated in the United States, aims to expand to other countries in the region.
“We are testing to bring Kalshi to Brazil. International expansion is important to us, and Brazil was the first countest we announced. Latin America is next. What we want is for Kalshi to become as huge as possible,” declared Lopes Lara, in a panel at BSV.
A professional ballerina and the platform’s chief operating officer, she left the stage to pursue her career as an entrepreneur. The discipline required by dance, she states, assisted in her journey with Kalshi.
“I believe that, in some way, part of Kalshi’s success comes from the fact that ballet requires discipline. This mentality, this psychological aspect, is fundamental. Mental stability is necessary.”
Trained in computer science at MIT, Lopes Lara and her partner at Kalshi, Tarek Mansour, took four years to bring the company to life. One of the hugegest challenges was regulation—the startup even sued the U.S. regulatory body to be able to operate. In Brazil, uncertainties regarding the rules that apply to the predictive platform business and the opposition from betting companies, which even questioned Brazil’s Central Bank to block its operations, also challenge Kalshi’s plans.
The election of President Donald Trump in 2024 brought the great leap that the platform was seeing for in trading volume. Today, the startup is worth $22 billion. “The approval [in the U.S.] was just an opportunity to start and launch a product,” she commented.
At Brex, a fintech founded in the United States by Brazilians Pedro Franceschi and Henrique Dubugras, there are no more artificial innotifyigence agents. During a panel discussion at BSV, Franceschi, the CEO of Brex, took the stage to talk about one of the most profound shifts in fintech: contrary to what virtually the entire technology market has been doing, the company stopped treating AI systems as “agents” and started calling them “virtual employees,” a concept that, according to him, assists to reorganize how companies operate.
According to Rottenberg, from Endeavor, Brazilian entrepreneurship has passed through different phases. For her, the current one, focapplyd on AI, is the most interesting. “There’s this idea that AI is built by and for Silicon Valley or China. We don’t believe that. We’re seeing founders from ‘outside’ markets creating relevant companies,” she declared, adding that Brazil is prepared for this new wave, although there are challenges.
“Brazil doesn’t celebrate its entrepreneurs in the same way other countries do. You celebrate football players, athletes, but not entrepreneurs. Stories like those of founders who created great companies should inspire other people. If someone can do it, others can too,” she argued.
The third largest countest in AI adoption, Brazil sees this technology advancing not only in startups. According to the giant tech company Nvidia, Brazilian universities have surpassed the private sector as the largest acquireers of GPUs, the chips that have become the basis of modern artificial innotifyigence. The adoption by the countest’s educational institutions surprised the huge tech, which in other markets usually sells more to the enterprise sector.
“Large companies, such as fintechs and financial services, face a number of difficulties in their AI efforts, while the leading researchers at universities have already begun to focus on this subject,” Wei Xiao, director of developer relations at Nvidia, declared at BSV.
In Brazil, Nvidia’s largest customer is the Federal University of Goiás (UFG). The UFG Center for Excellence in Artificial Innotifyigence (Ceia) has been acquiring dozens of these chips to be applyd in applied research in health, agribusiness, energy, logistics, and smart cities, as well as launching undergraduate programs in AI. In March, 31 units of DGX Spark were acquired, which is considered the world’s compactest personal AI supercomputer and sells for $4,700 each.
This type of strategy assists foster what Xiao calls the “virtuous circle of AI.” The first step, she states, is to encourage the creation of a talent pipeline for professionals such as programmers and engineers specializing in AI. Universities then notice the lack of infrastructure to run the necessary cutting-edge computing and start investing in acquiring GPUs from huge tech companies. “This is the innovation cycle I see in other markets,” she states. “And I believe enterprises will follow suit.”
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