NeoSpace AI raises $18M to build Brazil's foundational AI, led by Itaú

NeoSpace AI, the São Paulo-based startup building large language and foundational AI models tailored to Brazil, has raised $18M in an early-stage round led by Itaú Unibanco, Latin America's largest bank.

Founded by Felipe Almeida, Vinicius Pierobon, Gustavo Debs and Rafael Teixeira, NeoSpace develops AI infrastructure and models designed for Brazilian Portuguese and local enterprise use cases — positioning itself against global players such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. The team brings experience from Itaú's digital innovation arm Zup.

The capital will fund compute — including Nvidia hardware — and the expansion of NeoSpace's engineering and research teams as it scales its models for the Brazilian market.