Postcards from Elsewhere: São Paulo
Every month, we check in with Endeavor’s leaders in some of the world's fastest-growing markets to show you what’s really happening on the ground.
When I was in talks to join Endeavor Brazil last year, our Board Chair Cesar Carvalho said exactly what I needed to hear to decide I’d take on the challenge. “Tete, we’re the world’s 10th largest economy,” said Cesar, who is also the founder of Wellhub, “but when you look at every other entrepreneurship ranking for ecosystem maturity, we’re nowhere near 10th place.”
He really got me thinking. The frustrating part is how much potential sits on the other side of this gap. São Paulo is the most entrepreneurial city in Latin America. We are a country the size of a continent, one of the few markets where a unicorn can be born with a domestic thesis: about 60% of them reached the $1B mark without ever expanding internationally. The new generation of entrepreneurs, with companies founded after 2020, have been thinking globally earlier in their journeys, too — a third have already begun expanding and almost another third have plans to.
We’re a freaking powerhouse! We just haven’t bridged the distance between what we are and what we could be. With AI accelerating everything, that gap has never felt more urgent to close. The Brazilian diaspora working on AI right now is part of how we do it. This year, when I went to the Brazil at Silicon Valley event, I was astounded: the ecosystem is booming with impressive founders who are global from day zero.
That wasn’t common a few years ago. We had exceptions like Brex, built in the US by an Endeavor Entrepreneur born in São Paulo, acquired by Capital One in January 2026 for $5.15B. Or OneSkin, a longevity skincare company founded by two PhD and Endeavor Entrepreneurs, whose rigorously science-backed intellectual property earned them a $20M Series A and a devoted celebrity following.
As that diaspora grows, I’ve talked to people who’ve been in the ecosystem for a long time and see that almost as abandonment, worried about what it means for the local ecosystem. Though I understand the concern, I believe the biggest danger is to be disconnected from how fast the world is moving. We need to change how we look at it. This is us catching up.
But all of this is still quite new. So now, as Endeavor, we have a mission to help establish and strengthen a community there to make sure we have the right structure for these founders to pay it forward to their local ecosystems. I came back from San Francisco in April with an active WhatsApp group and weekly meetups scheduled. We’re even creating a playbook for newcomers.
Not because they need any handholding to connect or fundraise — they’re savvy, they find a way. The real pain is moving their families, getting visas, enrolling their kids in school, finding a place to live, and, of course, leaving behind the Brazilian warmth (literal and figuratively). Being close allows us to alleviate the saudade, but also to raise the bar for everyone and keep that Endeavor ethos alive: Go big and go home.
I believe a lot of them will, because Brazilian founders don’t seem to treat giving back as optional, but as a responsibility. We’ve seen it time and time again. For example, founders of companies like Wellhub, VTEX, and Ebanx took their companies to as many as 43 markets — but none of them really left. Cesar from Wellhub not only chairs our Board at Endeavor Brazil, but travels back every month to meet with ecosystem players. Ebanx’s founders kept their own HQ here and have impacted roughly 100 founders in the region, in addition to investments through their VC firm, Honey Island. VTEX’s Mariano and Geraldo relocated to London and the US to scale globally and took the company public on the NYSE in 2021, but their philanthropic focus remains on Brazil, particularly education. They started the #BrazilianEngineering manifesto to transform how the world sees what Brazilian talent can build.
In time, the new AI-native diaspora will also inspire new standards of what’s possible, close the capital gap, potentially become repeat-founders building locally, and mentor younger generations based on the knowledge they acquire outside the country.
We’re already starting off on the right foot. I was amazed by Vetto, for example, who builds datasets for research in frontier AI labs, and made tens of millions in revenue in only six months while embedded in Silicon Valley. Could they have done it at home? For sure. But maybe it would’ve taken them a bit longer right now. Instead, they hire Brazilian talent and take AI knowledge and good practices from the Valley to Brazil. Then there’s Tractian, an Endeavor company who moved their global headquarters to Atlanta. They just opened an AI center in São Paulo that aims to house over 500 engineers, following a $120M Series C round. Their co-founder, Igor, says they want to become SpaceX for the Brazilian industry and show how we can produce cutting-edge technology here.
That gives me a lot of hope for how much more globally competitive we will become in the near future — including among AI companies. Our tech talent is extraordinary, and every founder who succeeds abroad makes it easier for the next one, here or anywhere. The Brazilian diaspora isn’t abandoning our ecosystem, but expanding it, and we all grow as a result.
Maps from Elsewhere
São Paulo’s startup scene doesn’t live in boardrooms. It happens over coffee between investor meetings, inside coworking spaces packed with tech teams, and at events where founders feel part of a community.
Our Brazilian team put together the map below, highlighting the places where the ecosystem actually comes to life, where entrepreneurs, investors, and builders cross paths, exchange ideas, and start the conversations that later become part of Brazil’s startup lore.
Click here to explore the map.
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