In 2026, it’s no surprise to hear a CEO boasting about using artificial intelligence—even if it really amounts to slapping a new chatbot on a website. But there were companies in Latin America that found genuinely useful ways to apply the latest technology. In Chile, Ainwater provided AI-driven software to help water utilities make better decisions and save energy. In Colombia, Dapper’s platform gives multinational corporations a new tool to navigate a maze of local regulations. In Brazil, iFood’s “Large Commerce Model” helped restaurants create deals that snag new customers. And in Mexico, Niko Energy used AI and computer vision to help assess residences and businesses for rooftop solar, paving the way for “virtual power plants.”
Other companies innovated through acquisitions and new lines of business. Brazilian electric motor giant WEG bought an app to connect drivers to chargers. Petlove&Co, also in Brazil, bought a lab testing company to bring state-of-the-art imaging to its veterinary ecosystem. Colombian citric acid exporter Sucroal turned one of its waste products into an input for beer brewers. Finally, there were companies applying cutting-edge science to stubborn problems. In Argentina, Puna Bio used extremophile bacteria to make next-generation fertilizer and pesticides. In Colombia, NanoFreeze used bio-nanotechnology to make refrigeration more efficient.
1.Cobre
For helping Colombians move money between banks and businesses seamlessly
Every month, countless Colombians go down to their local corner store and wait in line to pay their cell phone bills in cash. But now they have a new option that’s digital and instantaneous.
On the one hand, it’s thanks to an initiative by the Colombian government. Following in the footsteps of CoDi in Mexico and Pix in Brazil, Colombia’s central bank launched Bre-B in October 2025, creating the infrastructure to let people and businesses move money instantly from one account to another.
On the other hand, it’s thanks to the work of Cobre, a fintech company building products that sit on top of that Bre-B infrastructure to enable a slew of digital transactions, including payments from businesses to other businesses. When a customer uses Bre-B to pay their Movistar cell phone bill, it’s Cobre that makes sure the money goes where it’s supposed to. “It sounds very simple. It is extremely complicated,” says Cobre CEO José Gedeon. “And no one else in the market is able to offer that.”
Cobre has announced similar products with the likes of taxi app Cabify, allowing drivers to be paid instantly. Since Bre-B launched last fall, Cobre estimates it has processed over 400,000 Bre-B transactions, making it the largest player in corporate payments through Colombia’s new system. It’s still a small slice of the company’s business, which also includes cross-border payments — it processed more than 28 million transactions in 2025 — but Cobre is betting on Bre-B’s importance. “We have believed this is a fundamental change for business for years, and we think this is also the way that we get our foot in the door with the largest companies in the country,” says Gedeón.
