If there is one Latin American nation that punches above its weight in the FT Americas ranking of 500 fast-growing companies it is Colombia. It contributes 31 companies to the list — as many as the rest of Latin America put together.
By comparison, there are 19 Brazilian businesses, even though Brazil’s economy is five times larger than Colombia’s, and five from Mexico, with an economy three times the size of Colombia’s.
That is in large part down to the fact that the ranking, compiled with Statista, a research company, is not a reflection of the size of each country’s economy, but rather the willingness of its companies to take part and divulge their results. Nearly nine in 10 on the overall list hail from the US and Canada alone, with a strong emphasis on technology.