Agricultural technology innovation is rapidly taking shape across Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the first-ever comprehensive regional mapping of AgTech startups, which counted 2,656 active ventures across 23 of the region’s 33 countries. The groundbreaking survey, published by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), expands the Brazil-developed AgTech Radar initiative to cover the full LAC region, offering stakeholders an unprecedented baseline for understanding the fast-evolving agri-innovation ecosystem.
The research was led by Brazil’s leading agricultural research body, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), in partnership with IICA, innovation consulting firm Homo Ludens, and venture capital fund SP Ventures. Additional backing for the project came from the Cooperative Program for the Technological Development of the Agri-Food and Agro-Industrial Sector of the Southern Cone (PROCISUR) and Mexico’s Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey. The final report will be officially unveiled June 23 at the World Agri-Tech South America Summit in São Paulo, Brazil, during a panel discussion featuring representatives from all lead partner organizations, and will be available for free access in Portuguese, English, and Spanish following the launch.
The report’s data reveals a stark but evolving concentration of AgTech activity across the region. Brazil leads by a wide margin, hosting 2,075 of the counted startups — 78% of the region’s total. Argentina ranks second with 158 ventures, followed by Mexico (110), Chile (91), Colombia (79) and Uruguay (74). Ten LAC countries recorded zero identified AgTech startups, which researchers link to factors including small national populations, limited territorial size, and underdeveloped domestic agricultural innovation sectors. The research team also notes that the final count is likely an underrepresentation, as gaps in local data tracking and a lack of partner institutions in some nations limited access to unregistered or emerging ventures.
Despite this concentration, study co-author and Embrapa analyst Aurélio Favarin emphasized that the region’s AgTech ecosystem is steadily maturing. “The AgTech Radar LAC 2026 data show that Latin America and the Caribbean are undergoing a steady process of maturation of the agricultural innovation ecosystem. Although there is still a strong regional concentration, there is a growing capacity to generate technological solutions adapted to local production realities,” Favarin stated in IICA’s official press announcement. He added that this first mapping effort creates a critical benchmark that will allow for more comprehensive and accurate tracking of ecosystem growth in future annual surveys.
Federico Bert, manager of IICA’s Digitalization of Agrifood Systems Program, highlighted the unique value of the cross-institutional collaboration that produced the report. By combining Embrapa’s deep technical expertise in agricultural research with IICA’s broad regional network across the LAC zone, the project was able to build a holistic picture of the ecosystem that would not be possible for a single organization to assemble. “Understanding how the ecosystem is integrated and evolves is the starting point for fostering its growth and development in both the public and private sectors,” Bert explained.
A key methodological update in this first regional edition is the classification of startups based on the specific agricultural production chains they serve. Of the total ventures mapped, 1,480 offer solutions that work across multiple production sectors. For single-sector startups, 751 focus on broad-acre crop production, 136 on cattle production, 88 on horticulture and fruit growing, and 84 on forestry. Favarin noted that this spread of specialization reflects the vast heterogeneity of agricultural production across the LAC region, and demonstrates that local startups are already successfully developing tools tailored to unique local production conditions.
The survey also breaks down the types of technology being developed by regional startups. Digital innovations lead by a large margin: 1,404 ventures offer tools such as artificial intelligence for farm management, environmental sensors, drone-based monitoring, farm management software, and digital market linkage platforms. Physical-chemical technologies, ranging from improved farming equipment to input delivery systems, are developed by 403 startups, while 374 ventures focus on biological solutions such as improved seed genetics and sustainable biological inputs. The majority of all surveyed startups target in-farm challenges, prioritizing solutions that boost operational efficiency, improve production management, expand on-site monitoring, and support farmer decision-making.