Latino Business Owners Talk About AI, VC, and Inflation

Latino-owned businesses in the U.S. continue to overcome funding challenges to pursue expansion and innovation — through strategies such as scaling internationally, acquisitions, and investing in artificial intelligence. Between 2017 and 2023, they grew at a faster rate than white-owned businesses overall — and in California and Florida, they accounted for more than 55% of all net new firms.

“Latino-owned firms continue to drive net new business and job growth,” says Rosalía Chávez Zárate, associate director of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI) at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a principal investigator for the 11th annual State of Latino Entrepreneurship report. She worked on the report — published in collaboration with the Latino Business Action Network — alongside principal investigators Marlene Orozco, a research consultant with Stratified Insights, and José J. Alcocer, a research analyst at SLEI.

The report, which was unveiled at the State of Latino Entrepreneurship (SOLE) Summit at Stanford GSB with over 1,000 in-person attendees, is based on a survey of more than 10,000 Latino and white business owners who have at least one paid employee and more than $10,000 in revenue. The findings showcase the contributions of Latino-owned businesses — and the Latino population — to the larger economy.

“Latinos are the youngest and fastest-growing demographic in the U.S.,” says George Foster, a professor of management at Stanford GSB and SLEI faculty co-director.

Adopting AI, Seeking Funding

Latino business owners are active in high-growth sectors such as AI and fintech, entering these areas at similar rates to white business owners.

“Tech-centric Latino-owned businesses, which tend to be younger and smaller, report comparable profit margins to white-owned businesses, which tend to be bigger and more mature,” Zárate says.

Latino-owned businesses and white-owned businesses reported adopting AI at roughly similar rates. For both groups, AI use has more than doubled between 2024 and 2025. Primary uses of AI include marketing and content creation, data analysis, forecasting, customer service, and business intelligence. Both groups of business owners also report monitoring for risks and training staff to ensure responsible use of the technology.

“Businesses may still be experimenting but have a more structured, accountable implementation,” Zárate says.

The increasing demand for AI has created a parallel demand for construction — historically a key industry for Latino-owned businesses. Between 2017 and 2023, the number of Latino-owned construction businesses grew 86%, compared with just 2% growth for white-owned construction businesses.

“There is an interface these days between tech and construction due to the large demand for physical infrastructure and data centers,” Foster says.

For the first time, the report used a custom dataset to examine Latino-owned businesses’ access to venture capital funding. It found that Latino-owned businesses have been hit hard by the decline in venture capital funding since 2021, receiving less than 2% of all venture funding in 2025.

“One in four Latino-owned businesses are tech companies, so we wanted to understand what their financial journey looked like,” Orozco says.

Latino-owned businesses that received venture funding had a median deal size of $6 million, exceeding the U.S. median deal value. Much of this funding was concentrated in later-stage companies. When markets tighten, investors tend to turn away from seed investing and look to their trusted networks, which may disadvantage newer Latino-owned businesses.

“Latino-owned businesses are facing selective progress: Once they make it into the pipeline, they can carry their weight,” Orozco says.

Looking Abroad, Overcoming Obstacles

Nearly half of Latino-owned businesses operate internationally. These companies reported higher median profit margins than those that operate only in the U.S.

“Latino-owned businesses are not necessarily waiting to reach a larger scale before expanding abroad,” Zárate says. “Their cultural ties and their families’ connections to their countries of origin support this international expansion.”

International expansion can bring complications, though, with a potential compounding effect if there are policy changes in both the U.S. and other countries where a company is operating.

Latino-owned businesses do face challenges — some that are similar to those of white-owned businesses and some that are more acute for Latino-owned businesses.

Inflation was the top concern for both Latino and white entrepreneurs. Another commonly cited issue was taxes and government regulation, including tariffs. Latino-owned businesses cited recent changes to Small Business Administration funding rules, including the imposition of new fees and changes to ownership eligibility.

Though immigration enforcement was not a leading concern, Latino-owned businesses cited it as a challenge more often than white-owned businesses (15% versus 5%), particularly construction firms.

As documented in previous State of Latino Entrepreneurship reports, access to capital remains a significant barrier. Latino-owned businesses were more likely to apply to multiple sources of financing and less likely to receive all the requested funding for loans. The largest gap is for requests of $1 million or more.

“Latino-owned businesses face persistent funding gaps relative to white-owned businesses,” Zárate says. Latino business owners were also more likely to report that loan denials lacked specific reasons, making it more difficult to know how to succeed with future applications.

Despite these challenges, Latino-owned businesses remain resilient. This year’s survey asked questions about growth strategies and found that Latino-owned businesses were more likely than white-owned businesses to be considering acquisitions (38% versus 26%).

“We see that as a signal for a strong strategic intent to scale — having a growth mindset and ambition,” Zárate says.