Female-Founded LatAm Startups Approaching Unicorn Status

Harlem Capital conducted a fantastic study about women founders in LatAm. In it, they found that 128 women raised $4B+ in capital last year. Our chart highlights the up-and-coming 10 that received the most funding in 2021 (excluding companies worth over $2B+). Whereas the progress of female entrepreneurship is encouraging to see, the study also reported how female founders still lag behind men by a wide margin. All men-founded teams received $13B in funding, more than 3 times the amount received by teams with women founders.

At the top of the list is Mexican Fintech startup Stori, which aims to “democratize credit card access to the 80 million underserved Mexicans.” Its female Co-Founder Marlene Garayzar said in 2018 that the company extends a line of credit to 99% of applicants after a background check that studies factors like where they live and how much they make. In its latest funding round 6 months ago, led by GIC and GGV Capital, Stori raised $125M.

The top Colombian startup on the list and the only one in the Real Estate industry is Habi, which boldly claims on its website to “buy your home in 10 days.” The company is the only unicorn on the list, earning that status just two weeks ago. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Harvard grad Co-Founder Brynne McNulty Rojas spoke about the opportunity for Habi to disrupt the industry, where she says it’s “incredibly complicated” to close a sale and where many put up their own “for sale” signs outside their properties. The company currently operates in Mexico as well.

This week’s opportunity:

Habi is looking for a Data Analyst in Bogotá 🇨🇴

Requirements: 6 months - 1 year of data analysis experience

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