5 things to know in #MiamiTech: New global martech venture; entrepreneurship programs rank high; Papa's new HQ; CVC in action & more

 
1 Global marketing-technology venture to be based in Miami

Giuliano Stiglitz, a Miami media and advertising executive, is heading up a new venture focused on bringing together international media and marketing-technology companies.
Stiglitz, who has founded and exited multiple ventures and is also an angel investor, will be CEO of Numatec, a holding company for a group of companies comprised of 300 employees in 22 countries that will pool their resources under one umbrella. Services will include programmatic advertising, growth hacking, influencer marketing and data analytics.
Numatec will be headquartered in Miami.  
Stiglitz said this new venture brings together the best available technologies to accelerate growth and distribution, while strategically investing in technology enabled service companies.
“Our vision, coupled with our unique portfolio of companies and footprint, make us the perfect partner for martech companies eager to attain more market share. We’re also the ideal investor for talented entrepreneurs who are looking to accelerate their businesses and align with the power of multiple brands and experience to achieve scale,” Stiglitz said in a statement
Some of the companies under Numatec include:
The Cookie Lab – A Colombia-based digital advertising and analytics firm with a client roster includes Brightline/Virgin Trains, Grupo Gente, Mastercard, Bancolombia, and Miami Fashion Week.
Kanvas – A Mexico-based influencer marketing and production arm that connects advertisers with influencers, offering a suite of production capabilities.
Sí Señor Agencia – A growth marketing firm with proprietary tech that develops digital strategies based on data. Clients including Nestle, BMW, DentalDoktor, and Multiparque Bogotá among others.
Tech Partners – A martech reseller that connects an advertiser’s message with the right audience to deliver business growth. S
Numatec has allotted funding for a rapid expansion. The main criteria for M&A will be whether companies complement the current stack, integration and over-arching strategy, Stiglitz said.

2 UM, FAU rank high for entrepreneurship programs

Two South Florida universities have ranked among the Top 50 entrepreneurship programs in the nation, according to The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine.
University of Miami ranked No. 13 on its list of Top 50 Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurship of 2021. Miami Herbert’s Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Program was ranked first in the state and first in the Southeastern Region, and it was the 8th ranked private institution. Its rank jump 41 slots from the 2020 list.
 “This top ranking truly reflects the incredible entrepreneurs who live and call South Florida home; it also dovetails with experiential and engaging curriculum from world-class faculty where our student stakeholders receive practice and principles,” said Michael Wilson, faculty member and director of entrepreneurship programs at Miami Herbert.
Florida Atlantic University’s entrepreneurship program, which includes its accelerator FAU Tech Runway, ranked on both the undergraduate and graduate program lists, landing at No. 37 and No. 41, respectively.
Factors that went into the evaluation included the percentage of faculty, students and alumni successfully involved in entrepreneurial endeavors, as well as the schools’ mentorship programs, scholarships and grants for entrepreneurial studies and school-sponsored business plan competitions.
“The schools that made our ranking lists for 2021 all offer exceptional entrepreneurship programs. Their faculties are outstanding. Their courses have robust experiential components, and their students receive outstanding mentoring and networking support,” said Rob Franek, Princeton Review’s editor in chief, said in a statement.
University of Tampa at No. 17, Florida Gulf Coast University at No. 29, and Florida State University at No. 40 were also on the undergraduate list. For graduate programs, University of South Florida is No. 18, University of Tampa is No. 20 and University of Florida is No. 39.

3 Papa putting down stakes with new office building

Who said the office was dead?
Papa, a “family-on-demand” elder-tech startup that connects older adults with Papa Pals to ease loneliness and help with daily tasks, will relocate its headquarters to new downtown Miami offices ahead of a national expansion, CEO Andrew Parker told the South Florida Business Journal.
“We’re going to have huddle rooms and areas for innovation and places to be collaborative together once it’s safe to do so. It’s not meant to be a typical 9-to-5 office where you have an assigned desk,”  Parker said in the SFBJ.
Papa’s employees of course have been working remotely, but before COVID, you could find many of them at the WeWork Security Building and WeWork Brickell City Center. Now Parker is making things more permanent. Papa signed a lease for 11,420 square feet at 66 S.W. Sixth St. in Miami’s Brickell (with a generous 2nd floor patio).  “I wanted to be in the heart of Miami, where people can walk to work or take the train. This checked all those boxes in a big way.”
The new HQ can accommodate 70 to 80 of its 150 full-time employees, including its executive team. Two months ago, Papa secured $18 million in Series B funding that will fuel is national expansion to all 50 states early next year. Read more here.

4 Corporate Venture Capital growing in South Florida

A few weeks ago, we told you about a new venture fund from Ryder, a strong sign of growing CVC activity in South Florida. Now, we have news from another leading South Florida enterprise.
This week, Baptist Health South Florida co-led a $34 million Series D capital investment in Boston-based health- tech firm COTA, which uses real-world data to improve outcomes in cancer care and oncology drug development, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
The company licensed data and intellectual property developed at Baptist Health’s Miami Cancer Institute. The Institute’s CMO Dr. Leonard Kalman  joined the board of COTA as part of the investment round. Read more here.

5 Visa’s acquisition of YellowPepper closes

That was fast.
Today, Visa  announced that it has completed completed the acquisition of YellowPepper, a Miami-based fintech pioneer with proprietary technology and partnerships supporting leading financial institutions and startups in Latin America and the Caribbean. The acquisition, which is the first of its kind for Visa in the region, accelerates the adoption of Visa’s ‘network of networks’ strategy, to become a single point of access for initiating multiple transaction types and enabling the secure movement of money. Read more about the acquisition here.

Bonus item: EndeavorLAB cohort for Black founders opens applications

Opportunity knocks. Endeavor Miami is launching its second cohort of EndeavorLAB, its new 2-month accelerator program. The upcoming program will be aimed at supporting Black founders scaling their ventures.
EndeavorLAB is designed to support local early-stage companies leveraging Endeavor’s methodology in mentorship and peer support and expertise in scaleups.
The second cohort is supported by the Simkins Family Foundation, and the program will be free to the entrepreneurs. This follows the inaugural EndeavorLAB cohort, which was focused on helping women founders scale.
Cohort 2 is open to founders who are based in South Florida with a market tested business model. Ventures can be pre-revenue up to $200,000 ARR.
Find out more and apply here.
Have news? Email Nancy Dahlberg at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ndahlberg.

Nancy Dahlberg