A larger cohort of Latin American technology companies is reaching meaningful scale. For SaaS and AI businesses with established products, multi-country operations and institutional shareholders, liquidity no longer has to mean a regional sale or another funding round. Strategic sales and, increasingly, secondaries have become important routes to liquidity, while public listings remain available to a much narrower group.
The buyer universe for LatAm exits is also becoming more international. US and European strategics and software groups are increasingly active across the region, expanding the set of potential acquirers for scaled LatAm companies. Selling to an international buyer, however, adds a distinct execution layer: corporate and holding structure, multi-country compliance, transfer pricing, currency exposure, scalability and integration can all become material in a cross-border transaction.
L40° has advised on these dynamics directly, including Elipse.ai’s acquisition by Runtime Enterprises, a 100% cross-border sale of a Chilean AI company to a Canadian buyer. This guide is designed for founders, CEOs and investors in scaled LatAm SaaS and AI companies considering liquidity, with a focus on the international M&A route: who the likely buyers are, what changes in a cross-border process, and how to prepare the company for a sale to US, European or regional acquirers.
Key Takeaways
Where liquidity actually comes from for LatAm software companies
LatAm private-capital liquidity has been driven primarily by strategic sales and, increasingly, secondaries rather than initial public offerings. Fund managers realized roughly $6.2 billion through exits in the first half of 2025, with secondaries accounting for a record 28% of exit value. That compares with approximately $8.7 billion realized across all of 2024 and $11.8 billion in 2023.
The US IPO window reopened narrowly in 2026. Brazil’s PicPay raised $434 million on Nasdaq, followed weeks later by Agibank with a scaled-back $240 million offering. The reopening remains concentrated among larger companies, particularly in fintech. For a $5 million to $100 million ARR software company, an acquisition is therefore a far more accessible liquidity path than a public listing.
Secondaries are also becoming a meaningful part of the LatAm liquidity mix. Secondary and financial-buyer transactions accounted for a record 28% of private-capital exit value in the first half of 2025. Continuation funds and GP-led secondaries are gaining traction as funds from the 2010–2015 vintages approach the end of their lives, while GP-led transactions have grown from roughly 30% of the global secondary market in 2018 to around 50% today.
These transactions can provide targeted liquidity while preserving future upside for founders, employees and investors. However, they typically do not create the same company-level ownership transition as a full sale. For a scaled SaaS or AI company seeking broad shareholder liquidity, M&A remains the more complete outcome.
A cross-border LatAm exit is the sale of a Latin American software or AI company to an acquirer based outside its home market, run as a single competitive process rather than a bilateral regional negotiation.
For the broader mechanics of running that kind of process, see L40°’s Cross-Border M&A in 2026: Insights for Sellers.
Who is buying LatAm software and AI companies now
International strategics and software holding companies have moved decisively on LatAm software and AI. Visa acquired Brazil’s Pismo, a payments and core-banking infrastructure provider, for $1 billion. Norway’s Visma acquired Brazil’s Conta Azul, a cloud ERP platform, for a reported $300 million and has added several other LatAm SaaS businesses to its portfolio. Vertex, the Nasdaq-listed tax technology company, acquired Uruguay’s Brinta, an AI-native e-invoicing platform. And Canada’s Runtime Enterprises made Chile’s Elipse.ai its first Latin American acquisition, advised by L40°.
Growth-stage capital tells a complementary story. Top global investors, including Founders Fund, Sequoia, General Atlantic, Andreessen Horowitz and Allianz X, backed LatAm B2B and AI companies at scale through 2026, as AI-first companies that automate work displaced consumer fintech as the region’s leading edge. That capital signals that scale and product quality have arrived. It is not, on its own, a liquidity event for the company or its shareholders.
More software holding companies are looking at Latin America, spanning both regional acquirers and international groups, a shift L40° has observed directly through its own transaction work. The underwriting bar for LatAm assets remains high, as markets are more fragmented and perceived riskier, and buyers weigh customer concentration, revenue retention and a company’s ability to scale across markets before anything else.
What changes when the seller is a LatAm company
Retention (net and gross), customer concentration, recurring-revenue mix, Rule of 40, and growth quality set value in any software transaction, in any geography. International buyers weigh these just as a domestic buyer would, perhaps even more thoroughly given that they’re mostly entering a new market. The fundamentals remain at the core of all transactions.
That said, a cross-border LatAm sale does add an execution layer:
- Corporate and holding structure. Companies that expand across Latin America often create local entities as they enter new markets. Buyers will want to understand how those entities sit under the parent company, where the IP is owned, how intercompany relationships work and whether ownership is cleanly documented.
- Multi-country operations. Operating across several countries can increase strategic value, particularly for buyers looking for regional reach. It can also add integration work if contracts, systems, teams or legal entities are organized differently from one market to another.
- Compliance. Data protection, employment, tax, IP and local regulatory requirements need to be reviewed across every country where the company operates. Issues that may be manageable in day-to-day operations can become diligence risks in a sale.
- Transfer pricing. Companies with entities in multiple countries need clear documentation for transactions between those entities. Weak or incomplete transfer-pricing files can create additional diligence questions and give buyers more room to negotiate.
- Integration. International buyers will also assess how easily the business can be integrated into their existing systems, teams and corporate structure. The more operationally fragmented the company is across markets, the more work the buyer may have to price into the deal.
- Currency exposure. Revenue and costs may be spread across several currencies while the transaction itself is priced in US dollars. FX movements between signing and close can therefore affect value and need to be addressed in the transaction mechanics.
- Tax and holding structure. In a cross-border sale, consideration may be routed through a holding company to access applicable tax treaties. The jurisdiction of the parent or holding entity can therefore affect how the transaction is structured and where proceeds are received. This should be reviewed with specialist tax counsel before going to market, since the appropriate structure depends on the company, its shareholders and the jurisdictions involved.
Cap-table reconciliation belongs on this list too, and not just as a footnote. Founders, venture investors and minority holders may define a successful exit differently, around valuation, cash at close, earnouts, rollover and post-close commitments. These expectations or differences around deal structure should be addressed early so they do not become a negotiating issue once offers are on the table.
See L40°’s guide on AI valuation multiples for how AI substance factors into pricing, and Selling a European Software Company to a US Buyer for the sibling corridor.
Running a competitive sell-side process from Latin America
A single process that reaches international and regional buyers at the same time deepens the bidding pool and widens the range of structures on the table. That is true of any competitive sale. What is specific to a LatAm seller is combining an international buyer universe, including US and European strategics, software holding companies and PE-backed platforms, with regional acquirers, run from a base in Latin America rather than negotiated bilaterally with whichever party shows up first.
L40°’s advised sale of Elipse.ai to Runtime Enterprises is a worked example of this corridor: a competitive process that reached both regional and international buyers and closed cross-border, marking the acquirer’s first deal in LatAm.
L40° combines an international buyer network with first-hand transaction experience and direct proximity to Latin America. Its Miami office connects the region with the US, while Madrid provides a natural bridge to European buyers. That positioning allows a LatAm sell-side process to be run internationally from the outset, with buyer outreach, diligence and execution designed for a cross-border transaction from day one.
What this means for LatAm founders and investors
Founders do not need to wait until they are ready to sell to start preparing for a transaction. In a cross-border LatAm process, many of the issues that affect valuation and execution can be addressed 12 to 24 months before launch.
Where a founder or investor sits in that timeline changes what to prioritize first:
- 12–24 months out: assess how the company would stand up to a sale process. That includes retention, concentration, growth, corporate structure, transfer pricing and shareholder objectives. This is also the right time to start discussing positioning, likely buyer interest and what should change before going to market.
- 6–12 months out: refine the equity story and map the buyer universe across international software holdcos, strategics, PE-backed platforms and regional acquirers. The goal is to enter the market with a clear view of who could buy the company and why.
- If inbound interest arrives: evaluate it in the context of the broader buyer universe before moving toward exclusivity or an LOI. An inbound approach can accelerate timing, but it should not determine the process by default.
- For investors: define the liquidity objective early. A secondary can provide partial liquidity while preserving future upside; a full or strategic sale creates a company-level exit and can realize returns across the shareholder base.
L40° works with LatAm software and AI companies well before a formal sale process begins, often 12 to 24 months ahead of a potential transaction, to assess readiness, strengthen positioning and map the international buyer universe. When the time is right, we run the sell-side process through close.
If you are a founder, CEO or investor in LatAm considering a cross-border exit, talk to an L40° advisor about how to prepare and when to go to market.
Recommended reads
- Cross-Border M&A in 2026: Insights for Sellers
- Selling a European Software Company to a US Buyer
- L40° Advises Elipse.ai on Its Acquisition by Runtime Enterprises
- Sell-Side M&A: An In-Depth Guide for Tech & SaaS Founders
