AI Fuels US Demand for LatAm Devs via Revelo
AI Spurs US Companies to Hire Latin American Developers
Despite a broader trend of companies calling employees back to the office, there's a significant surge in US tech firms looking south to Latin America for developer talent. This demand is particularly strong for engineers skilled in the post-training phase of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs).
Revelo, a platform boasting over 400,000 vetted developers from Latin America, is at the forefront of this trend. Co-founder and CEO Lucas Mendes reports a notable increase in demand for engineers capable of refining LLMs, a crucial step in making AI more effective for specific, high-value tasks like coding.
The AI Post-Training Boom
Mendes highlights that the current phase of AI development involves a "race for data," especially expert human data, to improve LLM performance. "We saw a surge in demand from [companies] building foundational models that are looking for engineers that can be effective experts and that can provide that human data to help their LLM code better," Mendes stated. This specific need for LLM training specialists accounted for a significant 22% of Revelo's revenue in 2024.
Companies often approach Revelo seeking experts in particular coding languages to enhance their ongoing AI model training efforts. Revelo facilitates the entire hiring and payment process for its US clients, which include major enterprises like Intuit, Oracle, and Dell, as well as "nearly every major hyperscale AI provider."
Why Latin America? The Nearshoring Advantage
While the push for remote work seen during the pandemic has somewhat subsided, the demand for Revelo's LatAm talent hasn't diminished. Mendes attributes this sustained interest to the benefits of "nearshoring" over traditional "offshoring."
He explains, "All of a sudden we started getting inbound from U.S. companies who suddenly realized that you can actually have really high-quality distributed teams and have some of those engineers are in Latin America." The key advantage lies in the shared time zones between LatAm developers and US companies, making collaboration smoother compared to working with teams in vastly different time zones.
Revelo's Growth and Future
Founded in 2014 to address talent shortages, Revelo initially focused on Brazil before expanding across Latin America. The pandemic significantly boosted its reach. The company has raised over $48 million in venture funding and has been actively acquiring competitors to solidify its position.
In the last 30 months, Revelo acquired five other LatAm talent-focused companies, including Alto and Paretisa. "We’re building that global talent backbone for the age of AI and there will be more acquisitions in the future,” Mendes affirmed.
