Opinion: The New Healthtech Thesis in LatAm

Opinion: The Evolution of the Healthtech Investment Thesis in Latin America

Our journey as health technology investors has taught us valuable and often tough lessons. In the past, through Confrapar’s experience with our investment in Help Saúde, we saw firsthand how difficult it was to innovate in a structurally rigid sector. Back then, the great challenge for healthtechs was trying to optimize scarcity: our effort was focused on digitalizing schedules and connecting patients to an inelastic supply of doctors. We faced low digitalization among professionals, resistance to behavioral change, and, above all, the insurmountable barrier of the cost and availability of human care. We were trapped in the fee-for-service model, which rewards illness and limits growth to the professional’s physical time.

Today, the paradigm has shifted, and the investment thesis is radically different thanks to Artificial Intelligence. AI no longer acts merely as a scheduling facilitator but as an engine for capacity expansion. By taking over the “information layer” of care—which involves triage, pre-diagnostics, chronic monitoring, and health education—technology reduces the marginal cost to near zero. This allows us, for the first time, to design solutions that meet an unlimited demand for health and well-being.

Latin America has a unique opportunity to leapfrog in this new scenario. Instead of trying to fix or replicate Western models based on resource scarcity and high costs, the region can rapidly adopt new business models that promote the abundant consumption of AI services. The key to this shift is moving away from per-procedure billing in favor of continuous access. Subscription models or Per Member Per Month (PMPM) payments align the incentives of the provider, the startup, and the patient toward long-term preventive health.

However, if yesterday’s barrier was technological adoption, today’s major obstacle is regulatory. The slow adaptation of industry rules could become the primary anchor holding back this revolution. The lack of clear guidelines and specific billing codes for AI-mediated care and services inhibits innovation, preventing these models from achieving scale and financial viability. Maintaining outdated regulations means delaying the safe integration of AI into clinical routines, depriving the population of massive gains in quality of life, reduction of avoidable expenses, and increased productivity.

The game has changed: the challenge is no longer connecting the patient to the doctor, but rather democratizing continuous care. The winners in this new era in LatAm will be the founders and investors capable of pricing abundance and aligning technology with new business models while helping to untie the continent’s regulatory knots.

Written by: Kadu Guillaume / Founder and Managing Partner at Confrapar S/A