Shyft CEO Randal Meske
Shyft
Investors continue to show interest – and spend direct dollars – in South Florida startups.
Fintech, Web3 and medical device ventures were among the companies to complete capital raises over the past week. The Miami area was among the Top 10 most active markets for venture capital investments during the first half of 2022, when local companies raised $2.5 billion across 195 deals.
Here are some deals you may have missed this week:
- Doodles, a Web3 media and entertainment brand headquartered in Miami, closed a $54 million funding round led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's investment firm Seven Seven Six. Doodles is a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) made up of images by digital artist Burnt Toast. Web3 refers to an idea for a future version of the internet powered by blockchain technologies, including NFTs and cryptocurrency.
Seven Seven Six, an investment firm led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, was Doodles' lead investor in a recent funding round.
Courtesy of Initialized Capital
- Majority, a fintech that provides mobile banking services to immigrants, secured $37.5 million in a series B financing round led by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures. The company, which has offices in Miami, Hialeah, Orlando and Houston reports its revenue has more than quadrupled over the past year. Founded in 2019, Majority offers banking services to immigrants who do not have Social Security numbers. That typically limits access to financial services, such as debit cards and low-fee money transfers.
Majority's Miami office.
Majority
- Shyft, a fintech marketplace for the moving industry based in Miami, raised $16 million in a series B funding round led by investors Munich RE Ventures and OurCrowd, an online venture investing platform. Shyft provides digital infrastructure and supply chain solutions to the moving industry, from connecting customers with moving companies to providing financial solutions to movers and suppliers. According to its website, it has facilitated at least 300,000 moves with more than 800 moving companies and 220 corporations. The company will use the new funding to expand to new markets.
Shyft CEO Randal Meske
Shyft
- Rapid Pulse, a Miami firm that develops medical devices to treat ischemic stroke, raised $10.5 million in a financing round led by medical device developer Syntheon and Santé Ventures. That brings its total funding to $25 million. The startup will use the capital to advance the development of its RapidPulse Cyclic Aspiration System through clinical evaluation and move toward U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
- Iliad Biotechnologies, a clinical stage biotech headquartered in Weston, closed a $42.8 million series D financing round led by New York hedge fund Knott Partners. The company is developing a "next-generation" pertussis vaccine to protect against whooping cough.
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