Argentina and Spain show smaller startup markets with big fintech and space rounds

Argentina and Spain may be meeting on soccer’s biggest stage, but their startup markets tell a quieter story for investors watching where new companies are getting funded. Crunchbase News reported that both countries remain smaller players in venture capital, the private funding used by young companies to grow before they are profitable or public.

For retail investors, these markets are worth watching because venture-backed companies can shape future public listings, acquisition targets and regional tech leaders. The catch is scale: according to Crunchbase News, neither Argentina nor Spain takes a large share of global startup investment, and both sit behind larger venture markets in their regions.

Argentina’s startup scene stays fintech-heavy

Crunchbase News described Argentina’s startup ecosystem as relatively small, uneven and capable of producing major winners. Argentine startups generally raise a few hundred million dollars a year in venture funding, the publication reported, below the typical totals for Brazil and Mexico, Latin America’s two most populous countries.

The country’s best-known tech success remains MercadoLibre, the online marketplace founded in Argentina. Crunchbase News said the company, now headquartered in Uruguay but rooted in a Buenos Aires garage, has a market capitalization of about $94 billion on Nasdaq.

More recent Argentine funding activity has centered on financial technology. Buenos Aires-based Ualá has raised $1.1 billion in known funding, according to Crunchbase News, including a $195 million financing in March. Fintech companies build technology for banking, payments, lending and related services, often targeting gaps in traditional financial systems.

Other Argentine companies with sizeable 2026 rounds include Pomelo, a payments infrastructure startup that raised a $55 million Series C co-led by Kaszek and Insight Partners, and Tapi, which provides payments and collections infrastructure and raised $27 million in Series B funding in February. Series B and Series C rounds usually refer to funding stages after a startup has moved beyond its earliest product and customer tests.

Crunchbase News said Argentina’s 2026 venture funding has already topped last year’s total. It also noted that the country’s annual totals can swing sharply because one or two large deals can change the full-year picture.

Spain draws bigger checks in space, HR and AI

Spain’s startup funding is larger than Argentina’s, but still trails major European peers. Spanish startups have raised less than $2 billion so far in 2026, according to Crunchbase News, roughly one-third of France’s total over the same period.

The largest Spanish round cited by Crunchbase News this year was PLD Space’s $206 million Series C in March. The company aims to provide space transportation services for cargo and human missions to the Moon and Mars, according to its stated mission cited by the publication.

Other large Spanish rounds span software, aerospace and artificial intelligence. Factorial, a Barcelona-based HR and payroll platform using AI, raised $150 million in Series D funding in June at a $2.5 billion valuation, bringing its equity funding to more than $350 million, according to Crunchbase News. Madrid-based EOS-X Space raised $140 million in Series D funding in May for near-space infrastructure, space tourism and aerospace data. Xoople, also based in Madrid, raised $130 million in Series B funding in April for AI tools that analyze geospatial data.

Crunchbase News reported that Spain is tracking toward a year-over-year funding gain. In recent years, annual startup investment in the country has ranged from $1.8 billion to $2.8 billion.

Smaller markets in a concentrated funding cycle

The broader backdrop is a venture market where capital has become more concentrated in leading hubs, especially during the current AI-driven investment cycle, according to Crunchbase News. That can make it harder for secondary startup markets to attract attention, even when individual companies raise large rounds.

Argentina and Spain show how smaller venture markets can still produce companies that matter. For investors, the takeaway is less about a single country winning the startup race and more about tracking where durable companies are getting funded before they reach public markets.

This story draws on original reporting from Crunchbase News.