**2. Innovation in Latin America**

Innovation and entrepreneurship have gained strength in Latin America during the last decade. Technological startups have tripled since 2017 and have multiplied their estimated value from USD 7 billion to USD 221 billion, reaching in 2021 the number of twenty-seven unicorns (private startups valued at more than one billion dollars) [12].

Despite this, the region is still characterized by low levels of public and private investment in research and development (R&D). As can be seen in **Figure 3**, by 2020,

**Figure 3.** *R&D expenditures as a percentage of GDP. Source: Adapted from [1].*

most countries are still far from reaching 0.5% investment in R&D with respect to GDP, a fact that contrasts with the average of 2.3% in OECD countries during the last decade and the notable advances of some Asian countries such as Thailand. On the other hand, in several countries, registered investment comes primarily from public funds, with minimal private funds.

The latter implies that the development of innovation and technological industries continues to be a difficult challenge. Added to this is the fact that in the Latin American context, the markets are not well developed, and there is a deficient business climate, with limited inventiveness [13], lack of resources and scientific and technological infrastructure [14], deficient institutional development [11], and a weak policy [15].
