The hard work of Tampa Bay's tech scene has paid off.
The last decade-plus has created building blocks for the burgeoning region, which came to a head in 2020 when the rest of the nation took notice. The influx of transplants, coupled with the yearslong efforts of longtime residents, culminated in a formidable ecosystem.
Tampa Bay Inno has chosen heavy-hitting entities that have set this year's ecosystem on fire for our aptly-named Fire Awards. The 35 companies, spanning eight categories, will be honored at our awards ceremony on Nov. 2 at Vu Studios.
Here are your Inno on Fire honorees.
Transplants
Spontivly: The former Canadian company landed in St. Petersburg at the start of the year and has not slowed down since. It was tapped as a finalist for the national Startup of the Year competition and closed a $1.2 million seed round, later adding funds from TampaBay.Ventures and "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban.
Genesis Systems: The former Kansas City-based company arrived in the region in late 2021, closing a $10 million seed round at the start of the year. The company has lofty goals; it states it can take the condensation from the air and create clean drinking water with the help of its mainstay product WaterCube.
Funnel Leasing: The former New York-based company opened its Lutz headquarters in August, a 7,000-square-foot space that will serve as a corporate retreat. Roughly 10% of the employees are local, with the hope to boost to 20% in the coming years. The company also closed a $36 million Series B round in February.
Satisfi Labs: The former New York-based tech company backed by Google and MLB quietly relocated to Tampa in May. The company counts 400-plus customers, including the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Amalie Arena and ZooTampa at Lowry Park.
MANTA: Almost exactly one month after Prague-based data company MANTA planted its flag in Tampa, the company closed on $35 million. The Tampa office is the company's fourth location, which counts at least 40 of its 120 employees as locals.
Serial entrepreneurs
Bruce Lucas, Slide: Lucas, the founder of publicly traded Heritage Insurance, initially raised $100 million in November for his then yet-to-be-launched company, Slide. It launched to the public in early 2022 and, in March, acquired $400 million in premiums from Orlando-based St. Johns Insurance Co.
Tony DiBenedetto, Appspace: DiBenedetto was one of the first to draw attention to Tampa Bay’s tech scene with the sale of Tribridge in 2017, which was one of the largest private technology companies in the region. In February, he was named CEO of Tampa-based Appspace, a software-as-a-service startup focused on easing communications in a hybrid work environment. It has roughly 380 employees globally across five main offices and counts several Fortune 500 companies as clients, including LinkedIn, Mastercard and Ford.
Aharon Chernin, Rewst: Chernin first made headlines in November 2020 after his company, Perch Security, was acquired by Tampa-based tech giant ConnectWise. He now is at the helm of Rewst, which raised $4 million in August and is on track, Chernin believes, to become the next great tech company in the region.
Ryan Dorrell, Fan Data Insights: Dorrell co-founded AgileThought in 2004 and stayed with the company a year after its acquisition in 2019. After a year of rest, he launched Fan Data Insights, which lets athletic departments gather data that is typically in silos.
iApartments: The company is co-led by three serial entrepreneurs: CEO Dave Magrisso is the founder of Valet Waste, which is now known as Valet Living; chief product officer Steven Fiske was a founding partner of Unikey Technologies; and CTO Mohammed Syed is a former technology partner at AutoWeb. In September, iApartments announced it doubled its head count in the last year and is tripling its office space with a headquarters expansion.
Exits
Peerfit: The wellness technology company founded in 2014 was acquired by Los Angeles-based FitOn in February. The company raised more than $51 million since its founding and while CEO and founder Ed Buckley remains at the helm, he plans to give back — both financially and otherwise — to the local tech scene.
Omnivore: The Silicon Valley-turned-Tampa Bay transplant that caught the attention of Jeff Vinik, Arnie Bellini and The Coca-Cola Co. was acquired in February by New York-based Olo, a publicly-traded company and online ordering provider.
CAVU Capital: CAVU's CEO Barry Shevlin initially served as the co-founder and CEO of Vology, before a stint at Skyway Capital and ultimately launching CAVU Capital in 2020. He closed three deals — two hailing from the Tampa Bay area — before ultimately merging with Hyde Park Capital in January. Hyde Park Capital will use the acquisition as a springboard for accelerating its technology service capabilities, expanding its team to roughly 16 people and focusing on merger and acquisition deals.
Blochealth: Former Boston-based founder Jared Taylor moved his medtech company, BlocHealth, to St. Petersburg in 2021. A year later, it was acquired by St. Louis-based SteadyMD. Taylor has now turned his attention toward his new startup, Slice, a business and healthcare-focused podcast company.
Investment firms
KnowBe4 Ventures: The Clearwater cybersecurity company announced in August it launched its venture capital arm at the start of the year. It has closed three deals with a focus on earlier-stage companies, in the seed round to Series B stage.
Druid Ventures: Chris Pizzo, a longtime player in the local technology scene, launched a $12.9 million fund focused on early-stage companies in the web3 sector in April. The fund has quietly invested in at least four companies, with a goal of roughly 35 investments completed over three years.
TampaBay.Ventures: The firm has moved at a breakneck pace since its launch in 2021, closing 11 hyperlocal deals across sectors ranging from cybersecurity to insurtech to an architecture-focused hiring platform.
Florida Funders: The venture capital fund and angel investor network hybrid is no stranger to making deals but has deployed its second fund in full force. It closed nearly a dozen investments since the start of the year. And in September, it cut its largest check yet, with a $5 million investment into Miami-based micro-betting startup Betr.
Tampa General Hospital's Innoventures: The $15 million fund launched in 2020 and has spent the last two years making four direct investments, with three companies in its CoLabs program, which is an incubator of sorts that accepts applications on a rolling basis.
Healthtech
Constellation4Health: The company, which launched from stealth mode in February, offers a data and subscription platform for insurance companies. In June, it acquired referral management platform Vulcan Health, and with the acquisition came a pre-seed round by Henderson Family Office for an undisclosed amount.
Morphogenesis: The company announced its new leadership with James Bianco now at the helm, and with that, a $9.1 million investment. The funding kicks off a directed study for Morphogenesis' skin cancer drug, which Bianco estimates will take two years before heading for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. It's also in the process of going public, which could be as early as next year.
Gale Healthcare: The fast-growing company closed a $60 million Series A in January, hired a new chief technology officer in August and is up to hiring roughly one person a day, expecting to balloon to an 800-person internal workforce by the end of the year.
Smart Meter: The company best known for its cellular-based monitoring products nearly tripled its office size after quadrupling growth in the last year. Newly-appointed CEO Casey Pittock is already on the hunt for more office space and is weighing plans to launch a West Coast distribution center in the future, with Tampa serving the eastern U.S.
Inno picks
Base Culture: The natural food brand known for paleo, grain-free and gluten-free frozen baked goods closed its Series D funding round led by industry giant Flowers Foods Inc. in July. The funding — and subsequent partnership — will help fuel Base Culture's distribution, innovation and popularity to become a household name, according to company CEO Jordann Windschauer.
Symphonic Distributions: The music distribution firm kicked off the year with a $37 million Series B round and followed it with an expansion to Canada in June. The company entered into a strategic merger with Higher Reign Music Distribution's music distribution division. The company is also weighing the opportunity to further flesh out its technology offerings and acquire rights to music catalogs of independent artists.
Vu Technologies Corp.: The company closed a $17 million round in March, kicking off a 10-city expansion across the nation. It most recently opened its largest space yet in Orlando, which spans 32,000 square feet and will have an emphasis on metaverse technologies.
Venuetize: The Tampa-based technology company with a specialty in streamlining sports fans' experiences has continued to rack up partnerships this year, from Churchill Downs Racetrack to the Los Angeles Football Club. In October, New York-based publicly traded company Everi announced its plans to acquire "certain strategic assets" of Venuetize, expanding its range of mobile capabilities to its gaming customers.
Blockchain/crypto
Pocket Network: The company hit the coveted $1 billion "unicorn" valuation at the start of the year after raising $10 million. That status has since dipped with the volatility of the market over the last nine months, but the company has kept plenty busy — including hiring a CIO and CFO to fill out its team.
Sandstorm: After selling his Silicon Valley fintech startup to PayPal's founder in 2015, Steve McGarry launched Sandstorm in April, simultaneously announcing a $2.5 million raise. The company offers a marketplace connecting the top metaverse builders to brands in need, with the goal to hit 25 million users by the end of this year.
Blockspaces: The business blockchain integration platform raised $6 million in January and, in July, struck up a partnership with Orlando-based Cogent Bank.
CoinFlip: The Chicago-based startup, known for its crypto ATMs, officially opened its first "crypto experience center" in September in Sparkman Wharf. The center will be open seven days a week and serve as an educational hub for those interested in the cryptocurrency market.
Beyond the Bay
Nucleus Security: The Sarasota-based cybersecurity company raised $20 million in March and counts Toyota, Qantas Airline and National Australia Bank among its clients. After the raise, CEO Steve Carter said he hopes the company will hit 75 employees by the end of the year.
Wind Talker Innovations: The Lakeland-based company offers software that, if both devices have it, can directly communicate with one another and bypass cell towers. It has 85 employees spread throughout the country, with roughly 40 in Lakeland and raised $36 million at the start of the year.
Qgiv: The company is one continuously mentioned in discussions surrounding Lakeland's next unicorn. The company helps nonprofits with their fundraising management systems, working with more than 5,000 nonprofits across the nation and employing more than 85 people.
Hook Security: The Lakeland-based cybersecurity company, like many in the industry, brings training through videos — but does so with a focus on the psychology behind the learning. It received an undisclosed investment from TampaBay.Ventures in June.
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