We escaped a big one, but our hearts go out to our friends in the Bahamas. I’m sure the #miamitech community will find their ways to contribute to the relief efforts. Here is one roundup of ways to help, via the Miami Herald.
Now back to regularly scheduled programming.
1 Congrats to Caribu for raising $1 million on WeFunder
Maxeme Tuchman was the 59th Latina to raise $1 million in venture capital and now she is the first Latinx and female CEO to raise $1 million via equity crowdfunding platform Wefunder. Miami edtech startup Caribu surpassed the milestone Aug. 25. Caribu’s campaign on WeFunder will continue until Sept. 15.
Tuchman, CEO of Caribu, recently posted: “Even though Caribu met its $1M goal, due to extremely high demand (and emails begging us to stay open) from investors who would still like to invest, we’ve decided to continue to raise up to $1.3M. With the help of Wefunder, we’ll be opening a concurrent Regulation D campaign with the same terms. Larger investments made by accredited investors will be transferred into this new campaign making more room in our Regulation Crowdfunding campaign for additional investors. All the funds raised between the time we hit $1M, and today, will be counted. Our page still says “Almost Sold Out” and the button says ‘Reserve’ but please know that your investment will be counted.”
Caribu is also one of 12 startups presenting at LaunchPad at the WORLDZ conference in Los Angeles next week. “We’ll showcase in front of some of the most influential minds and brands ever assembled with members from Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Google, Vice, Samsung, and more,” Tuchman said.
We’ll get the lowdown on her tips for crowdfunding success after the campaign is over.
2 Speaking of edtech, Product Hunt is celebrating it this week at VentureCafe
Product Hunt, a place for product-loving enthusiasts to share and celebrate the latest mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, and tech creations, is teaming with Miami EdTech for a Pitch Night to celebrate Miami edtech successes 6:30 to 8:30 Thursday at Venture Café.
Pitching will be Kiddie Kredit, My Workspace and Be the Bigger Person. The panel of judges will include Ulises Orzo of Gradvisor, Gustavo Rodriguez of BabySparks and Lourdes & Matias Aviñó of YTeach.
3 SoftBank’s Miami office looking for VPs and an operating partner
15: The number of Miami job postings on Glassdoor for SoftBank, including VP of its Latin America Fund Tech Hub, a VP of operating the team, operating partner for SoftBank’s Latin America Fund, a chief compliance officer and a valuations director. Many of the postings are very recent.
4 Fundings around the state roll on
August was a good month for fundings around the state.
Tampa-based Homee, an app that provides on-demand home repair services, raised million. The Series B round was led by Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, bringing its total raised to $30 million.
Digital Hands, a cybersecurity company, received a $15 million investment in a round led by Atlanta-based VC firm Fulcrum Equity Partners.
Washlava, a platform to reserve and pay for laundry machines with a smartphone, recently received more than $5 million. This follows an undisclosed Series A round in July led by LG Electronics.
Tampa tech company Lumina, which uses artificial intelligence for predictive analytics and risk sensing, raised $1.4 million in equity from 12 investors. This follows the $5 million the company raised in equity in July.
Stay tuned for more news on Refresh Miami.
Follow @ndahlberg on Twitter and email news tips to her at [email protected]
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