The Miami Startup Ecosystem

The Miami Startup Ecosystem has grown rapidly for the past decade. The Magic City, which historically became well-known for turning from a land of plantations to a major city seemingly overnight, provides a steady business climate to help startups and founders get into the global market. 

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Navigate is the startup accelerator at The LAB Miami. We get questions every day about the who, where, and what of the Miami ecosystem so we put this guide together to help collect all these resources in one place.

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Key moments in the growth of South Florida’s entrepreneurship movement:

2006: Refresh Miami launches as Miami’s main tech-oriented community group.

2012: The Knight Foundation identifies entrepreneurship as a key initiative for Miami, investing in The LAB Miami, the region’s first independent co-working space

2013: Endeavor, an international business mentorship group, opens its first U.S. program to Miami thanks to a Knight Foundation grant

2014: Miami hosts first-ever eMerge Americas conference, the largest tech conference in Latin America

2015: Kauffman Foundation releases first study on local startup activity, ranking Miami No. 2 in the nation

2016: CIC Miami and Venture Cafe Miami open, providing events and programming for local startups and entrepreneurs

2017: Kauffman Foundation ranks Miami No. 1 in startup activity; LaunchCode opens first non-profit coding academy in Miami

2018: 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley venture fund, arrives in Miami

Read more here: Miami Herald

Here’s what you’ll find in this guide:

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Miami Startup Media

Miami Angel Groups Miami Venture Capital Firms

Miami Coworking Spaces

Miami Accelerators and Incubators

Miami Communities

Miami Events and Conferences

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‍Miami Startup Media:

Centralized local information, listings, and news. (i.e. startup blogs/ publications/ lists/ FB groups/ newsletters)

‍Brian Breslin's Blog

‍iLabStartup Blog

‍Miami Tech Startup Guide

‍Refresh Miami

‍Starthub Blog

‍Startup Digest Fort Lauderdale

‍Startup Digest Miami

‍Startup.Miami

‍Tech.co Miami 

‍Tech Beach

‍The LAB Miami Blog

‍The Starting Gate

‍Broward College Hub‍

South Florida Business Journal

‍The New Tropic

Miami Angel Groups 

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Florida Funders — Seed to Series B; Agnostic+Florida Focus (avg. check size $100k–500k)

‍Keiretsu Miami — Seed to Series A; Agnostic+healthcare focus (Avg. check size $100k–500k)

‍Miami Angels — Seed to Series A; Agnostic+Florida Focus (avg. check size $100k–$1MM)

‍New World Angels —Seed to Series A; Agnostic+Florida Focus (avg. check size $100k–1MM)

‍South Florida Angels — Seed; Agnostic (avg. check size $100k–1MM)

‍TAMIAMI Angels — Seed to Series A; Agnostic (avg. check size $100k–750k)

Miami Venture Capital Firms

‍1Heart — Seed; Agnostic+Social Impact Focus (avg. check size $100k–500k)

‍Athenian Venture Partners — Seed to Series D; IT and Healthcare (avg. check size $500k–5MM)

‍Beresford Ventures — Seed to Series A; Agnostic+Healthcare Focus (avg. check size $100k–500k)

‍Caerus Ventures — Seed to Series A; Hardware and Software (avg. check size $250k–2MM)

‍Cito Ventures — Seed to Series B; Agnostic (avg. check size $250k–1MM)

‍First Serve Partners — Seed to Series B; Sports and Entertainment (avg. check size $100k–1MM)Greyfox Partners — Seed to Series B; Agnostic (avg. check size $100k–2MM)

‍Harris Bernstein & Co. — Seed to Series B/Bridge; Agnostic+Distressed Focus (avg. check size $100k–1MM)

‍H.I.G. BioHealth Partners — Series A to Series D; BioTech and Healthcare (avg. check size $1MM-10MM)

‍Knight Enterprise Fund — Seed to Series B; Media and Technology (avg. check size $100k–1MM)

‍Krillion Ventures — Seed to Series A; Healthcare, Fintech, and Real Estate Focus (avg. check size $300k–1MM)

‍Las Olas Ventures — Seed to Series B; Agnostic (avg. check size $500k–3MM)

‍Medina Capital — Seed to Series B; Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing and Big Data (avg. check size $1MM+)

‍Ocean Azul Partners — Seed to Series A; Agnostic (avg. check size $100k–1MM)

‍PeopleFund — Seed to Series B; Media, Software, and Technology (avg. check size $1MM-5MM)

‍Rokk3r Labs (Rokk3r Fuel ExO) — Seed to Series A; Agnostic (avg. check size $100k–1MM)

‍Secocha Ventures — Seed to Series A; Consumer, Healthcare and Fintech (avg. check size $500k–5MM)

‍Starlight Ventures — Seed to Series A; Agnostic (avg. check size $500k–5MM)

‍Thesis Ventures — Pre-Seed to Seed; Agnostic+Consumer Focus (avg. check size $100k-500k)

‍The LAB Ventures — Pre-Seed to Seed; Agnostic+Miami Focus (avg. check size $100k-500k)

‍The Venture City — Seed to Series B; Agnostic (avg. check size $500k–5MM)

‍Watsco Ventures — Seed to Series A; Watsco Strategic VC Arm (avg. check size $100k-500k)

Miami co-working spaces:

305 Works

Ampersand Studios (Arts & Entertainment District)

‍Axis Space Coworking

‍Büro (multiple locations)

Building.co  (Brickell)

‍Center for Social Change

‍CIC

‍CityDesk Miami

‍CoLab Workspaces

‍Creation Station Business Coworking Hub

‍General Provision

‍Keyworking

‍MADE at the Citadel

‍Miami Shared

‍Minds Cowork

‍Moonlighter

Novel Coworking (Edgewater)

‍Pipeline Workspaces (multiple locations)

‍Quest Workspaces

Rent24 Coworking (Downtown)

‍Serendipity Labs

‍Starthub Miami

‍TamboWorks (South Miami)

‍The LAB Miami (Wynwood)

‍The Rocket Lounge

Tribe (Overtown)

Thynk Global (Little River)

‍WeWork

‍Innovation Hub at Broward College

‍Tedge Networks

Miami Accelerators and Incubators

Looking for accelerators and incubators in the Miami area? We’ve got you covered.

‍500 Startups — Seed; Agnostic (avg. check size $25k-100k)

‍Aminta Ventures — Seed; Agnostic+Female Focus (no funding)

‍Endeavor Miami — Series A to Series C; South Florida Companies+Social Impact Focus (no funding)

‍Radical Partners — Seed; Social Impact (no funding)

‍Startup Bootcamp Health — Seed; Healthcare (avg. check size $100k-300k)

‍Steel Bridge Labs — Seed; Fintech (avg. check size $250k–1MM)

‍Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab — Seed; Agnostic+Female Focus (no funding)

Navigate — 1-on-1 advisory on how to launch, grow, or get funding ready; Any vertical

‍Florida Small Business Development Center Network

‍Beacon Council

‍Score Miami Business Plan Consulting

‍Scott Ellington Technology Business Incubator

‍Founder Institute

‍Hialeah Technology Center

‍Innovation Hub at Broward College

‍The LaunchPad (University of Miami)

‍Metro Broward Small Business Success Center

‍Miami Entrepreneurship Center (MEC 261)

‍StartupUP FIU

‍Startup Miami

‍TED Center Business Incubator

‍Venture Hive

‍VentureWave

Miami startup communities:

Miami events and conferences

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Startup Grind 

‍Bitcoin and Financial Education

‍BlackTech Miami

‍BridgesUnite

‍Broward Ruby Brigade

‍eMERGE Americas

‍Miami Machine Learning Meetup

‍Miami Software Development Meetup

‍Miami Startup Founder 101

‍Miami VR

‍Professionals and Entrepreneurs of Americas

‍Refresh Miami Meetup

‍South Florida Startup Founder 101

‍South Florida Women in Agile

‍Startup Grind Fort Lauderdale

‍Startup Grind Miami

 
How big is Miami?

The city of Miami goes from Coconut Grove to Little Haiti, and actually doesn’t include Miami Beach (another city). What people are actually talking about often times is Miami-Dade County. Here’s a map of the City of Miami below for a better understanding.
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Big employers of Tech in the Miami Area?

• REEF Technology
• Blackstone
• Chewy.com
• Magic Leap
• Citrix
• Papa
• Ultimate Software
• Restaurant Brands International (owner of Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Horton’s)
• Nearpod
• Modernizing Medicine
• CareCloud
• Royal Caribbean
• Carnival Cruise Lines
• Norwegian Cruise Lines
• Ryder System
• Visa
• Watsco‍
• World Fuel‍

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If you want help starting up confidently with your company:

Visit navigate.capital or schedule a call with us to find out how we can help you launch easier, grow faster, and raise faster.

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Did we miss anything? Drop us a message on our contact us page and we'll get it fiixed up.