Read about South Florida’s big global moves, hot tech sectors, relocations and expansions, VC trends and, of course, AI. We’ve got your year in review.
By Nancy Dahlberg and Riley Kaminer
We’re founder-first here at Refresh Miami, and we’ve covered a surge of AI-powered startups this year, the continued growth in fintech, healthtech and other sectors, and a global connectiveness that has never been stronger. Our region’s tech migration has slowed since the pandemic, but make no mistake, founders and funders are still coming, and, well, we survived another year of VC Winter with a much better showing than expacted.
In our year in review, we looked back on our founder stories and rounded up the venture capital trends and ecosystem developments. We now are presenting, in no particular order, what we saw as some of this year’s top news and trends shaping #MiamiTech, from Miami-Dade through Palm Beach County. Yes, we had a lot to celebrate in 2024.
The AI surge is upon us
It may be the buzzwordiest of buzzwords, but it’s hard to deny that artificial intelligence stepped into the limelight in 2024. AI’s share of total fundraising leapt from 12% in 2023 to 27% this year, with the average round size for AI companies growing 140%, far outpacing the 10% increase for non-AI companies.
And Miami was certainly not left out of the party.
The fundraises alone are almost too many to count. Just to name a few: Spines secured $16 million to revolutionize publishing with AI; Matia raised $10.5 million to simplify AI-driven data management; IntelePeer landed $140 million for its customer service AI automation platform; Arcee AI secured $24 million Series A to transform the landscape of small language models; SKROL closed $1.2 million to launch its SME business acquisition platform; plus just this month, Vultr bagged $333 million to expand AI infrastructure on its cloud platform. And the list goes on.
Beyond the flashy headlines, of course, we can find the flurry of founders toiling away with their heads down and sights set on building the future of AI right here in Miami.
One particularly potent use case: human resources. Recruiting is one piece of the puzzle, with Hirize leveraging AI to make that process a bit less painful for all parties involved. Humantelligence unveiled a host of AI-infused workflows to help us understand our coworkers a bit better. And if you’re looking for an AI-powered career co-pilot, look no further than Abe.
Another key area was anything having to do with marketing and sales. Prescient AI helps eCommerce brands optimize their ad spend, while Myko AI supports sales teams out on the road. Propense built an AI-powered platform for B2B cross-selling, and FirmPilot created a tool to make marketing a breeze for lawyers. The Career Karma team launched OutRival [pictured below], aiming to leverage AI to transform customer experience at scale. And don’t forget PR! Leading PR platform Muck Rack added AI into its mix of tools this year.
2024 also saw Miami innovators leveraging AI to make the world a healthier place. For instance: UK startup Definition Health set up shop in Miami to bring their AI-powered surgery care platform stateside. Boca telehealth company Reachlink started to leverage AI to power their menu of mental health therapies. Neotypica is using AI to build the future of clinical research. And AI helps DermaSensor nip skin cancer in the bud. – Riley Kaminer
Check out all of Refresh Miami’s recent AI-related stories here.
Healthtech is Miami’s prescription for the future
The healthtech story is really bigger than just AI.
Zooming out a second: healthtech excellence in Miami just makes sense given our overall healthcare excellence – enabling us to attract top global players in the space.
Take Nodal as an example. With $4 million in the bank, the Miami startup is on a mission to make surrogacy more accessible and transparent. Similarly, Intrivo, a top global provider of healthcare services, is based here. And Osigu is completely revamping healthcare payments in Latin America right from Key Biscayne.
Telehealth is another pocket of growth that we’ve noticed: from Spanish-language platform Opción Yo to teen-focused BeMe Health and therapist platform Yung Sidekick to in-portal telemed platform HelixVM.
Of course, we’ve also got our fair share of the deeptech innovators in the healthcare space. Insightec has its MRI treatments, FloSpine is working on its spinal health product, and Neocis is revolutionizing dental surgery through robotics (pictured below).
Insightec’s CEO, serial entrepreneur Maurice R. Ferre, is bullish on the Miami area as a medical technology hub given its access to both global markets and local patients in one of the nation’s largest health districts, coupled with the advances in technology. “I think we have an opportunity to win in this community. We’re starting to see the pieces come together.”
Interested in more about South Florida’s healthtech chops? We laid it all out to bare in this article from September. – Riley Kaminer
South Florida draws big tech players, too
First, we received the news of another West Coast tech giant expanding in South Florida and joining the teams of Amazon and Microsoft already growing in South Florida. Yes, Apple is expanding beyond its stores in the Miami area, starting with a 45,000 square foot office in Coral Gables. And that’s not all: More companies from around the world are now calling Miami home.
Miami is seeing a lot of love from financial technology companies. To name a few, this year we reported that British fintech Floww expanded to the U.S. via Miami to transform capital raising for startups, while Canadian fintech Zūm Rails, which offers a platform that helps businesses manage payments and risk in real-time, made Miami its US HQ. Another fintech, Veritran, a global financial technology solutions provider based in Argentina, announced it is opening its North American headquarters in Coral Gables. Veritran aims to have a team of 50 employees in the US soon.
Beyond fintech, Israel’s Spinframe expanded to Miami, offering its AI-powered vehicle-inspection systems. Danish EV charging platform Monta is preparing to conquer American market from its new US headquarters in Wynwood [pictured below]. VaynerX, a prominent media player, Botmaker of Argentina, a 200+ employee company in AI-powered chat commerce, Connectd, a UK-born networking platform, and Daymond John and his team were also among the companies announcing Miami HQs.
This just scratches the surface. Check out more relocation and expansion stories here. – Nancy Dahlberg
From talent gap to a talent tap
Will there be enough talent for all these tech enterprises and startups?
This year, a community-wide initiative called Miami Tech Works, seeded with a $10 million grant from the US government, put out a comprehensive Tech Talent Gap Report. The upshot: South Florida‘s educational institutions are training the talent but the pathways to entry level jobs need to be improved so more graduates stay.
Don’t worry, Miami tech Works and its employer-led Miami Tech Talent Coalition are hard at work on building those pathways by working with employers, universities, and bootcamps. Success stories are already beginning to multiply. Workgroups of tech employers, academic leaders and other stakeholders continued work on seeding and supporting initiatives such as trainings, micro-internships and apprenticeships, making sure that underserved communities are part of it. To that end, the Miami Tech Talent Summits and the Venture Miami Tech Hiring Fair [pictured below] were huge successes, with hundreds of job seekers getting an opportunity to receive advice and meet with employers face to face. – Nancy Dahlberg
Miami to the World
Mr. 305 isn’t the only Miamian that’s gone worldwide this year – not by a long shot. Dale!
Over the last year, we’ve tracked some of Miami’s top innovators as they’ve racked up airline miles while spreading the #MiamiTech gospel on the global stage.
In snowy Helsinki, Finland, we saw Founders Fund’s Delian Asparouhov opine on the future of European tech. “If things were actually going much better on the continent, this conference would be in July, Mykonos, and we would be partying,” asserted Asparouhov. “But instead, we must sit here in the darkness.”
In a much sunnier Valencia, Spain, Bobby Aitkenhead [pictured below], managing director of IDC Ventures, a Copenhagen-based VC with deep roots in Miami, gave a keynote presentation that highlighted his perspective on “burning the boats” – or going all-in on your dreams.
“Focus on the sole thing you’re trying to achieve, not the what-ifs,” he asserted. “You need to toss your Plan B overboard.”
Underscoring Miami’s international appeal, a panel discussion in Valencia shared insights on how international companies can make the Magic City their U.S. home.
“You can’t just show up in Miami and just say, ‘I have a great product, here I am,’” asserted Etienne Gillard, the head of ventures for Mana Tech.
Back on our shores, Calcalist’s inaugural Miami Tech & Invest conference in November brought to Faena Forum the best of Israeli innovation, including 14 of the Startup Nation’s most promising upstarts in healthtech, agriculture, automotive, education, cybersecurity and other sectors. “I like this combination that it’s not only the US but also Latin America. It’s a cross-border opportunity,” Calcalist CEO Noa Tamir said of Miami.
In the summer, we rounded up a non-exhaustive and ever-expanding list of soft-landing programs that provide international entrepreneurs with the tools, services, and knowledge they need to land in Miami and expand into the U.S. market. – Riley Kaminer
We’re moving on up in a global ranking, too
Miami moved up an impressive seven places and is now solidly ranked among the top startup ecosystems in the world, according to the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report released by Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network. The GSER includes research and insights from more than 300 entrepreneurial ecosystems and 4.5 million startups. The upshot: Miami (defined as the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area) rose to 16th in the world.
The rankings were based on scoring in five areas and Miami’s scores were: Performance (7 out of 10), Funding (7), Talent & Experience (3), Market Reach (8) and Knowledge (1). In North America, the Miami metro ranked 6th, just behind Washington DC. Our international connectiveness was particularly lauded. “Miami, even though it’s not a top 3 US ecosystem, it seems like there’s a strategy to make it one of the more globally connected ones. It’s clearly paying off,” said Forrest Wright, research assessment lead for Startup Genome. Another finding: the Miami metro area saw a 10% growth in seed and Series A funding deals (from the previous report), “pretty amazing in the VC winter we are experiencing,” Wright said. – Nancy Dahlberg
How #MiamiTech fights through a VC winter
2023 was a low point for recent #MiamiTech venture capital, and the good news is that’s all in the rear-view mirror.
While full results aren’t in yet, venture capital activity in 2024 turned upward – although founders out there trying to survive the VC winter may beg to differ. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area will likely rank in the top 10 US metro areas for venture capital results for both dollars invested and for number of deals. In the first half of the year, Miami metro area companies attracted $1.37 billion, with $408 million of that going to startups in financial technology, the region’s strongest sector for VC. But nipping at fintech’s heels is medtech: Medtech startups attracted nearly $379 million in the first half of 2024, more than all of 2023, according to the eMerge Insights report, and it could overtake fintech for the first time this year.
According to my ongoing research and Refresh Miami’s reporting, it appears that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area will easily soar past 2023’s result of $2.4 billion. The results will be helped by mega-rounds in the second half of the year. Stay tuned for the eMerge Insights 2024 report for the final numbers!
Some trends we’ve been seeing:
- After a quiet 2023 with no mega-rounds, we’ve seen their return in 2024: West Palm Beach-based Vultr’s $333 million raise, the company’s first; Miami-based Insightec’s [pictured below] $150 million; Dania Beach-based Intelepeer’s $140 million debt and equity raise; and a $100 million Series A secured by Fort Lauderdale biotech Synchromune.
- Seed stage deals are growing, and currently about 4 of every 10 rounds are seed stage deals in the Miami metro area. That’s a good signal for the future of our ecosystem.
- Fintech and medtech are still our top sectors, but we’ve also seen significant traction in proptech, gaming and creator economy startups this year. Climatetech is emerging as a player, and media and web3 continue to thrive in the 305.
We had exits too: ICYMI, catch up on Refresh Miami’s reports on PeopleClerk, EarlyDay, Jobox.ai and Sustainabase, among others. – Nancy Dahlberg
The investors are still coming – and launching new funds
We saw several fund relocations and new funds emerging, too. Led by Ben Ling [pictured below], Miami-based Bling Capital raised a $270 million Fund IV to invest in and double down on young startups. HighPost Capital, a West Palm Beach investment firm founded by Jeff Bezos’ younger brother, Mark, and private equity veteran David Moross, raised its first early-stage venture fund – to the tune of $100 million. Borderless Capital launched a $100 million web3 fund, its fourth in the DePin space. Skypointer Capital closed a $30 million fund that aims to open doors for tech-curious family offices. Earlier in 2024, Miami-based Connexa Capital launched a $20 million fund to invest in early-stage startups, and Ani.VC launched a $35 million fund focused on pet-related startups. Snowpoint Ventures, a firm with an eye on defense tech, announced a relocation to Palm Beach County. Miami-based 1948 Ventures, meanwhile, is now enabling investors to support Israeli dual-use startups.
Alpaca VC General Partner David Goldberg has been tracking the number of partner-level VCs in South Florida over the past four years and the number has grown from about 25 to 125, he told Refresh Miami earlier this year. “The flywheel effect is real – we’ve reached a critical mass where Miami is a regular stop for founders and investors. This is creating a robust ecosystem that continues to grow.” – Nancy Dahlberg
Emerging powerhouse? Proptech is one to watch
Is there any other topic that comes up more regularly at a wider diversity of places than real estate? From the boardroom to the kitchen table, property purchasing is top of mind in Miami.
For that reason, it’s not a surprise that Miami’s got some major proptech prowess, confirmed by a steady stream of news across this year.
DoorLoop is somewhat emblematic of just how far our proptech scene has come. In October, the company landed $100 million to level up its property management platform.
“It’s about making the experience better for everyone: whether you’re a property owner, investor, or tenant,” co-founder David Bitton told Refresh Miami. DoorLoop [pictured below] has been seeing 100% year-over-year growth and has about 100 of its 150+ employees based in Miami.
When it comes to Miami proptech, there’s a little something for everybody:
- For agents: Realfinity helps them create another stream of income by offering mortgage services, Giraffe360 helps them market their properties in the most efficient way, and DASH helps them find new builds.
- For investors: Recently-acquired investment sourcing platform Getaway enables consumers to invest in short-term stay properties, while Waltz enables international investors to more easily buy U.S. property
- For owners: Sell2Rent solves a problem for people in financial distress, enabling them to stay in their homes; and Dono enables buyers to verify the ownership of their property.
- For the web3 curious: Propy’s AI-powered platform is bringing housing ownership on-chain. – Riley Kaminer
We’re an emerging Climatetech hub now – and wait, there’s more
With a missionto turn our region into a top destination for climate tech innovators, Miami-Dade County received $19.5 million in federal funding as a US Tech Hub for climate technology.
“It’s going to attract and retain the best talent. It’s also going to open up our universities so that entrepreneurs can test their products in real-life conditions,” Francesca de Quesada Covey, Regional Innovation Officer of the ClimateReady Tech Hub and Chief Innovation and Economic Development Officer of Miami-Dade County, told Refresh Miami.
Since the announcement this past summer, Covey and her team have already begun working with Miami innovators including Blue Frontier, Carbon Limit and 1Print as well as large corporations, universities, and local governments.
That’s not all. Seaworthy Collective is part of a $13.9 million NOAA-funded national initiative called The Continuum aimed at establishing a network of BlueTech accelerators across the United States. Seaworthy also plans to expand its flagship programs, including its Startup Studio and incubator. “BlueTech is still in its early stages,” said founder and CEO Daniel Kleinman. “But we’re starting to see real momentum, and that’s exciting.”
In more ecosystem news, the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority ran its third public challenge calling for solutions to an problem we’ve all faced in South Florida’s gridlock: mobility. What’s more, the City of Miami was selected to participate in the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (REAP). As part of a two-year program led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, Miami’s team will collaborate with MIT faculty and global peers to design and deploy strategies that harness the city’s unique assets while addressing its specific challenges. Miami’s participation will be led by Micaela Brandy Alvarez, Jason Saltzman, Ethan James Appleby, and Nicola Demko.
It was a big year for other key ecosystem players too. Johanna Mikkola, co-founder of Wyncode, is now the CEO of Tech Equity Miami, an organization charged with expanding upward mobility for Miami-Dade residents. Raul Moas, formerly the Miami program director for Knight Foundation, is heading up a new venture called Partnership for Miami, a coalition of business leaders seeking to find innovative solutions to the Miami metro’s social challenges, and music entrepreneur Ted Lucas opened the doors to The Source, a downtown hub for entrepreneurs. In April, a record crowd celebrated eMerge Americas’ 10th anniversary at its signature conference [pictured below], and in December Endeavor Miami hosted an all-day summit for the first time, one of dozens of tech events during December’s Art Week. This year, Endeavor Miami, FAU Tech Runway, Techstars Miami, NSU’s Levan Center, and FPL’s 35 Mules continued to graduate accelerator cohorts, and meetup groups focused on AI, fintech and hardtech have emerged, too. – Nancy Dahlberg
We were honored to once again bring you close to 500 stories in 2024 (never a paywall!), and like you, we’re excited for what’s ahead. Bring on 2025 – and from our team to yours, Happy New Year!
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Refresh Miami has been chronicling the rise of #MiamiTech through our stories since 2018 and expanded our news staff signifcantly when founders and funders began migrating here in a big way starting in 2020. Freshen your memory with our year in reviews for 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.
ICYMI, CATCH UP ON OUR 2024 SPECIAL REPORTS:
If you don’t receive our free weekly Refresh Miami newsletter every Tuesday, sign up here. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on X @ndahlberg and email her at [email protected]. Thank you for reading Refresh Miami.
- Cheers to #MiamiTech 2024: A global ranking, healthtech and proptech rising, megarounds, new funds, a climatetech hub & more – December 26, 2024
- Syncromune, a Fort Lauderdale-based biotech, raises $100M Series A for cancer therapies – December 23, 2024
- All-star investors back new Miami-based women’s basketball league, dunk $28M into Series A – December 17, 2024
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