The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area attracted $361 million in venture capital funding in the second quarter of 2024, down significantly from the $623 million the region raised in the first quarter, according to the latest data from Pitchbook.
South Florida startup deal counts also fell to 71 in the second quarter, down from 106 in the first quarter. Refresh Miami reported 89 deals in the second quarter of 2023, totaling $378 million.
However, the report notes that two late June deals aren’t included in that total: Insightec, a Miami-Israel-based medical technology company developing focused ultrasound, raised $150 million in Miami, the largest round of funding this year, and asset tokenization startup Securitize raised $47 million.
If we factor these two deals into South Florida’s total VC funding in Q2, the second quarter’s results would roughly match the total for Q1 2024. With VC funding approaching $1 billion in the first half of 2024, according to Pitchbook data, the region appears on track to match last year’s total of $2.4 billion.
Last year’s South Florida total was a sharp decline from the region’s record venture capital investment of $5.8 billion in 2022. At the time, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region ranked seventh in the country, bucking a national downturn in venture capital investment.
The good news in Pitchbook’s latest report is Miami’s burgeoning fintech sector, which continues to strengthen its fundraising power: Four of the region’s top five venture capital deals were Miami-based companies, three of which were fintech companies.
FundKite, an online funding platform for small businesses that moved from New York to Miami, raised $25.9 million. Payabli, a Miami-based fintech startup that helps SaaS companies get payments, raised $20 million in a Series A round. Miami-based Majority, a banking platform focused on immigrants, raised $20 million in the second quarter.
According to a Crunchbase report late last year, there are now more than 570 fintech startups headquartered in Florida, many of which are based in the Miami area, which is quickly becoming an international financial hub.
Cleantech and climate tech are also growth areas in South Florida. Miami-based cleantech startup Exowatt raised a $20 million seed round in the second quarter from investors including Atomic and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Other area startups that secured big funding rounds in the second quarter included Boca Raton-based business productivity company Healing Realty Trust, which raised $20 million in a Series A round; Max Retail, a West Palm Beach company with a marketplace for excess inventory that raised $15 million; Felix Pago, a fintech remittance platform that raised $15.5 million; and Dataplor, a global location intelligence startup that raised $10.6 million.
