☀ Domingo Brief — Web Summit Returns to Rio

Each Sunday, take two minutes to catch key stories and opportunities shaping Latin America.

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Welcome back to the Domingo Brief! This week, we’re following big investment news for both Mexico and Uruguay, Costa Rica’s new trade deal, a new low-cost trip in the Southern Cone, and more.

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Trivia of the Week

A measly 13% of you correctly guessed that Ouro Preto was the most populous Latin American country in the mid-eighteenth century. The small historical town, which was once called Vila Rica, was the capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais when it was the richest and most important state in the country. In 1730, its population was an estimated 40K people, while within a few decades it had doubled to 80K. This is at a time when New York had less than a half of that number, while the hemisphere’s biggest city today, São Paulo, had only 8K people.

Each week, tune back in for the answer to the previous week’s trivia question. No cheating!

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🇦🇷🇺🇾 Low-cost carrier JetSmart will begin offering 2 daily flights between the capitals of Argentina and Uruguay. The Chilean airline aims to expand its presence in the River Plate region, and will use this new connection across the river’s estuary to also grow connections between Montevideo and other cities like Asunción.

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🇧🇷 Web Summit Rio returned to Brazil’s second-largest city this week, with over 34K people converging at a convention center in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Startups from throughout Latin America came to pitch their products to investors at what has become the region’s largest tech summit.

Latinometrics: We sent our very own Senior Editor to Web Summit, and he can confirm: there’s lots of innovation and opportunity coming in Latin America’s tech sector. Environmental and sustainable pitches met with young fintech firms and established banking giants like Bradesco and Banco do Brasil, while panels convened top venture capital giants to discuss what the year ahead contained for AI, sustainability, and the VC market.