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6+ things to know in #MiamiTech: Techstars Miami inaugural cohort plus news from Taxfyle, Countdown Capital, Endeavor, WeWork, VC & more – Refresh Miami
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A dozen startups have been selected to participate in the inaugural class of Techstars Miami, an accelerator for early-stage tech companies.
In March, Techstars announced Miami would be one of the cities chosen as part of a partnership between Techstars and J.P. Morgan to invest $80 million in more than 400 companies through 37+ programs in 9 cities to create opportunities for wealth creation, often constrained by institutional, structural, and systemic barriers. About 75% of CEOs chosen for the program identify as Black, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous American and/or Pacific Islander, TechStars said.
“Miami is the base and desired destination for founders across all industries,” said Andres Barreto, managing director of Techstars Miami powered by J.P. Morgan. “Although it’s known for the boom in web3 and fintech, we also found companies across industries as diverse as healthcare, logistics, robotics, and edtech.”
The Miami program sourced from a wide-range of early stage founders from idea to over $1 million n funding, and span verticals including Fintech, Proptech, Healthcare, SaaS, E-Commerce, Blockchain, Aerospace and Edtech. A spokeswoman said most of the selected companies are either based in Miami or Latin America or planning to relocate or scale here.
Here are the selected companies:
Applications are open until Nov 8, 2022, for the upcoming February 2023 cohort.
READ MORE ON REFRESH: Miami’s ‘secosystem ranks 31st globally in Startup Genome’s 2022 ranking, leaping from its emerging status in 2021.
Following its recent $20 million Series B funding round, Taxfyle has expanded into a 10,125 sq. foot headquarters office at 2911 Grand Ave. in Coconut Grove,with the addition of 70 new hires, making its core team 109 in total. Equipped with call pods and meeting spaces, the space will also give employees an opportunity to utilize break time with a recreational area pool table, a ping pong table, and old school arcade games.
Dubbed the “Uber for taxes,” Taxfyle set out to transform professional tax prep in 2015 with an easy-to-use platform that simplified the process of filing personal or business taxes. Taxfyle also offers robust B2B solutions — Taxfyle Outsourcing for CPA firms, and Worklayer for the enterprise segment. Among Taxfyle’s clients are a Big Four accounting firm and a cadre of top 300 CPA firms. Taxfyle ranked in the top 15% on the Inc. 5000 list for two consecutive years.
Miami-based Countdown Capital announced that it had closed a $15M Fund II. Started in late 2020 by Jai Malik, Countdown backs hard-tech startups looking to “rebuild the American industrial base.” The firm invests at the pre-seed stage with an average chieck size of $300K and often writes the first check. Malik has backed nine startups so far. Read more here.
Endeavor Miami announced that Emiliano Abramzon has joined Endeavor Miami’s Board of Directors. This brings Endeavor Miami’s Board to 17 members, a group that includes high-profile leaders and business executives. Abramzon, who co-founded Nearpod in 2012 along with Felipe Sommer and Guido Kovalskys, was selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2018. Since then, he has been an active mentor to Endeavor Entrepreneurs, a panelist at Local Selection Panels (LSPs), and a part of the Endeavor Outlier Class since 2018. Abramzon is the fourth Endeavor Entrepreneur to become an Endeavor Miami Board Member.
WeWork announced that its partnership with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has been renewed for 2022 as the need for flexible RTO solutions continues to stay at the forefront of business priorities as companies navigate the new world of work.
As part of the program, WeWork is offering businesses access to certain incentives, including:
On a roll: Led by the $180M funding round for the formerly bootstrapped PR platform Muck Rack, South Florida companies drew at least $436.6 million in venture capital in the first half of September alone. Deals included:
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