Brazilian AI company Pax has secured one of Latin America’s largest-ever seed funding rounds after demonstrating how artificial intelligence can help law enforcement agencies reduce violent crime, improve investigative efficiency and solve thousands of criminal cases across Brazil.
For decades, crime has been one of Latin America’s most persistent social and economic challenges. Across the region, police agencies face overwhelming caseloads, fragmented information systems and limited investigative resources. The result is a gap between the volume of crimes committed and the number successfully solved.
A Brazilian technology company believes artificial intelligence can help close that gap.
Pax, an AI-native public safety company headquartered in São Paulo, has announced a US$40 million seed funding round co-led by Greenoaks and Benchmark. The investment ranks among the largest seed financings ever raised in Latin America and comes as the company expands deployments across Brazil.
The funding follows results from the company’s first large-scale implementation, where authorities reported a 27% reduction in violent crime over six months. According to Pax, police efficiency doubled during the same period, while public perception of safety improved by 59%.
More than 2,000 criminal cases have been resolved using the platform, including investigations involving homicide, armed robbery and vehicle theft.
The announcement highlights growing investor confidence in the use of AI beyond enterprise productivity applications and into public sector operations where large-scale data analysis can have direct societal impact.
One of the central challenges facing law enforcement agencies is not a lack of information but an inability to connect and analyse it quickly enough.
Modern cities generate enormous volumes of data through surveillance cameras, vehicle tracking systems, emergency response records and criminal databases. Yet much of that information remains isolated within separate systems.
Investigators often spend countless hours reviewing footage, cross-checking licence plates and manually connecting evidence from multiple sources.
Pax was designed to address this problem.
The platform connects camera networks and public safety databases into a unified intelligence environment. AI algorithms then analyse vehicles, people, incidents and locations to create a continuously evolving intelligence graph capable of generating investigative leads and real-time alerts.
Rather than replacing human investigators, the platform is intended to augment their capabilities.
“Solving crimes is a data problem,” said David Peixoto, founder and CEO, Pax. “We built Pax from the ground up to index real-world data and make it actionable in real time. The officer investigates. The officer decides. The platform multiplies their capacity.”
Transparency and accountability have also been built into the platform. Every system query is logged and all access is attributed to identified operators, creating audit trails designed to support oversight and governance requirements.
The scale of the opportunity is significant. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, violence costs the region hundreds of billions of dollars annually through healthcare expenses, lost productivity, security spending and reduced investment.
Brazil alone illustrates the challenge. Phone theft has become so common that roughly one in ten Brazilians experiences a stolen device each year. Meanwhile, homicide investigation rates remain well below those achieved in many developed economies.
Technology investors increasingly see these challenges as opportunities for data-driven innovation.
Greenoaks partner Andrew Cohen said public safety agencies across Latin America have historically lacked both the technology infrastructure needed to generate actionable intelligence and the tools required to effectively use available information.
“Ask Brazilians what they want fixed, and their number one answer is crime,” Cohen said.
He added that early results from Pax deployments demonstrate how modern technology can deliver measurable improvements in public safety outcomes.
According to Cohen, vehicle-related crimes have fallen sharply in the first state where the platform was deployed and law enforcement personnel now view the system as an essential operational tool.
The company’s growth story is closely tied to the experience of its founder.
Before launching Pax, Peixoto built one of Brazil’s most successful education technology businesses. He scaled Arco into the country’s largest education technology company and led its public listing in the United States.
He later co-founded isaac, a company focused on addressing financial and operational challenges faced by Brazilian K-12 schools.
That combination of technology, scale and operational experience has influenced the approach taken at Pax, where the focus has been on building technology capable of operating across complex public sector environments.
The company has also attracted a highly specialised workforce.
Its engineering team includes graduates from Stanford University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alongside talent from Brazil’s leading engineering institutions including ITA and USP.
Many team members previously worked for major US technology companies before returning to Brazil to help develop the platform.
The involvement of Greenoaks and Benchmark is particularly notable given their track records of backing category-defining technology companies.
Benchmark helped fund companies such as Uber, Instagram and eBay, while Greenoaks has invested in organisations including Anthropic, Brex, Coupang and Flock Safety.
The latter is especially relevant given its focus on public safety technologies in North America.
The comparison highlights an emerging trend in global venture capital, where investors are increasingly exploring opportunities to apply AI technologies to critical infrastructure and public services.
While much of the AI conversation has centred on workplace productivity, customer service and content generation, public safety represents a potentially significant growth area.
Governments worldwide continue to face increasing pressure to improve service delivery while operating within constrained budgets. AI systems capable of helping personnel make better decisions and process information more efficiently are attracting growing interest.
For Latin America, the implications could be substantial.
If AI platforms can help improve crime-solving rates, reduce investigation times and increase deterrence, the impact could extend beyond public safety into economic development, tourism and investment.
Safer cities can attract businesses, encourage consumer spending and create conditions that support long-term economic growth. Improved public safety can also strengthen public confidence in government institutions and contribute to broader social stability.
The challenge, however, will be balancing effectiveness with privacy, governance and civil liberties concerns.
As AI becomes more deeply integrated into public sector operations, transparency, accountability and oversight mechanisms will become increasingly important.
Pax argues that auditability is a core part of its architecture, ensuring that every action performed within the system can be traced and reviewed.
The company now plans to use its new funding to accelerate expansion across Brazil and eventually other markets throughout Latin America.
For Peixoto, the mission extends beyond building another technology start-up.
The goal is to demonstrate that one of the region’s most enduring challenges can be addressed through better use of data, modern technology and effective public sector collaboration.
Whether Pax ultimately becomes Latin America’s defining public safety technology platform remains to be seen. What is clear is that investors, governments and law enforcement agencies are increasingly willing to explore how AI can contribute to safer cities.
If early deployment results continue to hold as the company scales, Pax could become one of the most closely watched examples of AI delivering measurable real-world impact beyond the corporate world and a model for how advanced technology can address complex public challenges.
Looking ahead, the company faces the challenge of scaling deployments while maintaining accuracy, trust and accountability. Success will depend on continued cooperation between technology teams, police leaders and policymakers. If achieved, the model could influence public safety strategies across the region widely.
