Why Monashees Is Bringing Latin America’s Startup Ambitions To Silicon Valley

Monashees, described by Crunchbase News as one of Latin America’s oldest and most influential VC firms, opened a San Francisco office to connect LatAm startup entrepreneurs with Bay Area funding and AI research. Partner Fabiola Quinzaños relocated to Silicon Valley from Mexico City as the firm sharpens its focus on what it calls “Global LatAm”: Latin American founders building global businesses. The move follows Monashees’ Mexico City office opening in 2022 and its San Francisco setup in September 2025.

Quinzaños told Crunchbase News that AI’s pace makes it difficult to stay current without a Silicon Valley presence. The firm sees San Francisco as a dense hub for AI tools, talent, labs and venture funds, especially for founders building AI-native companies. The takeaway for founders is practical: use Silicon Valley for frontier exposure and capital access, but avoid carrying a U.S. cost base when revenue is tied to markets such as Brazil or Mexico.

Monashees was founded in 2005 in São Paulo, when Brazil lacked the founder networks, local LP support and follow-on capital that now define a more developed ecosystem. Brazil is highlighted as a digitally savvy market, including high Uber volume, major ChatGPT visitor share and broad adoption of Pix, the real-time payment rail created by the Central Bank of Brazil. Monashees is also partnering with Google on the Gama Fund, which will co-invest up to $2 million in AI-native and deep tech pre-seed or seed-stage startups in Brazil.

Monashees makes around eight to 10 new investments per year and is finalizing deployment of its $370 million fund into roughly 35 companies. The article points to portfolio examples including Tractian, Music.AI, Shiva, Flash and Yuno to show how LatAm-born or LatAm-linked companies can pursue U.S. customers, AI infrastructure, fintech, HR technology and global expansion. Quinzaños also described a hybrid talent model, with senior AI or research talent often close to the U.S. ecosystem while engineering and technology teams remain in Brazil, Argentina or elsewhere in Latin America.