Latin America has long been described as a region of contrasts: immense economic potential paired with systemic inequalities. In 2025, a new cohort of Latina entrepreneurs is helping to tilt that balance. These women are not only scaling companies, attracting venture capital and building global partnerships; they are also reshaping what leadership looks like in male-dominated industries. Their ventures cross fintech, AI, e-commerce, sustainable fashion and education, and collectively they are proving that innovation and inclusion can go hand in hand.
The stories of these 10 leaders, recognized in the Latin America Reports 40 Under 40 list for 2025, reveal how entrepreneurial talent is transforming business culture across the hemisphere.
From Colombia to Silicon Valley: breaking barriers
Angela Acosta – Beauty tech with social impact
At just 30, Angela Acosta has turned Morado into a powerhouse of the beauty-tech sector in Colombia. With backing from global investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global, her platform connects suppliers with over one million women-led businesses. Acosta’s work reflects a crucial shift: beauty is no longer just about consumption but about enabling small entrepreneurs, many of them mothers, to earn sustainable incomes.
Carolina Huaranca Mendoza – Venture capital for the underrepresented
Born in Peru and raised in the US, Carolina Huaranca Mendoza embodies the bridge between Latin America and Silicon Valley. As co-founder of First Close Partners, she is channeling capital toward diverse and underrepresented fund managers. Her earlier role at Kapor Capital and her seat on the board of Latinas in Tech highlight her dual mission: build profitable funds and open doors for communities historically excluded from venture capital.
Mexico’s innovation ecosystem
Odille Sánchez – Accelerating scientific entrepreneurship
Mexico’s startup ecosystem has matured rapidly, and leaders like Odille Sánchez are ensuring that scientific and tech-based ventures are not left behind. At the helm of the Tech & Scientific Entrepreneurship Center at Tecnológico de Monterrey, she designs accelerator programs with international reach. Her work demonstrates how universities can become incubators of innovation rather than ivory towers disconnected from the market.
Ana Karen Ramírez – Inspiring the next generation of STEM leaders
Through Epic Queen, Ana Karen Ramírez has reached thousands of girls across Mexico with programs that demystify coding, robotics and engineering. Her goal is cultural change: to make science and technology spaces where young women feel they belong. In a region where STEM careers remain heavily male-dominated, her initiatives are planting seeds that will yield long-term shifts in the labor market.
Claudia de Heredia – Digital commerce pioneer
Before “e-commerce boom” became a buzzword in Mexico, Claudia de Heredia was already co-founding Kichink, a platform that gave SMEs and independent creators the ability to sell online. Her work anticipated the surge in digital consumption and highlighted how empowering small businesses through online tools could ripple through entire economies. Today, she continues to advocate for policies and ecosystems that favor women-led digital enterprises.
Argentina and Brazil: scaling innovation with inclusion
Sofía Contreras – Championing women in tech
In Argentina, Sofía Contreras has become synonymous with digital inclusion. As co-founder of Mujeres Argentinas en Tech, she is part of a growing network ensuring women’s participation in the country’s tech ecosystem. Her advocacy combines public speaking, mentorship and direct collaboration with companies seeking to diversify their teams. Contreras shows that inclusion is not charity; it is a strategy for competitiveness.
Juliana Figueiredo – Banking the unbanked in Brazil
Brazil remains one of the world’s most fertile grounds for fintech innovation, and Juliana Figueiredo is among the entrepreneurs shaping its future. Her venture in inclusive digital banking targets communities historically excluded from formal finance. By providing affordable credit, savings and payment options, she is addressing structural inequities while tapping into one of the region’s largest potential markets.
Luiza Bonin – Sustainable fashion through technology
Another Brazilian leader, Luiza Bonin, is co-founder of Vinci Shoes, a company blending sustainable production methods with tech-driven customization. In a fashion industry often criticized for waste and exploitation, her approach offers an alternative: stylish products with transparent supply chains. Bonin’s story reflects how consumer demand for sustainability is pushing entrepreneurs to innovate in design and production.
Diaspora innovation: a Venezuelan in New York
Daniela Blanco – Artificial intelligence for green chemistry
Venezuelan-born Daniela Blanco represents how Latin American talent flourishes globally. From her base in New York, she co-founded Sunthetics, a startup using AI to develop sustainable chemical processes. Her work has won recognition from MIT and major accelerators, and its implications reach far beyond business: it suggests a cleaner industrial future. Blanco illustrates how diaspora entrepreneurs remain connected to Latin America while influencing global innovation trends.
A shared vision of leadership
The paths of these 10 women are diverse, but their challenges often intersect. Many had to navigate skepticism in male-dominated rooms, seek capital in environments biased against women founders, or balance cultural expectations with professional ambition. Their persistence offers lessons for a new generation: leadership is not about conforming to outdated molds but about rewriting them.
What unites them is not just entrepreneurial success, but the deliberate choice to create value beyond profit. Whether by enabling micro-entrepreneurs in Colombia, promoting STEM education in Mexico, or designing sustainable industries in Brazil and the United States, they embody a model of business that is both competitive and socially conscious.
Why this matters now
Latin America stands at a crossroads in 2025. Economic recovery after global shocks, combined with demographic youth, is generating opportunities for innovation. Yet structural barriers — gender inequality, limited access to capital, and uneven digital infrastructure — persist. The women profiled here show how these barriers can be dismantled, step by step, by those bold enough to reimagine the rules.
For investors, policymakers and aspiring entrepreneurs, their message is clear: supporting Latina leaders is not only a matter of justice, it is a smart economic bet. The businesses they are building are already reshaping markets, inspiring new generations and placing Latin America on the global innovation map.
The rise of these 10 entrepreneurs should be read not as isolated success stories but as part of a broader movement. They are proof that talent exists in every corner of Latin America, waiting for resources and recognition. By betting on them, the region is betting on itself.
Their journeys remind us that the future of business leadership in Latin America will be written in many voices, and increasingly, those voices will be women’s.
