Monashees, one of Latin America's oldest and most influential VC firms, believes the next phase of the region's startup ecosystem requires a permanent Silicon Valley presence. The firm, which was founded more than two decades ago in Sao Paulo, last year opened a San Francisco office to connect LatAm's startup entrepreneurs with the money and AI research coursing through the Bay Area. When the firm was founded in 2005, Brazil didn't yet have a startup ecosystem ' there was no network of founders, no LPs backing VC firms based there, and no follow-on investors. That has changed drastically in the couple of decades since, with the country emerging as LatAm's startup powerhouse and a place where U.S. investors and tech giants are increasingly courting business. Brazil is an exceptionally digitally savvy market. It is the highest-volume market for Uber and the third-largest by visitor share for ChatGPT. Its real-time payment rail Pix, created by the Central Bank of Brazil, was rolled out...
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