6+ things to know in MiamiTech: News from Locality Bank, MoonPay, Synapse, SVB, DataCore, PeakActivity, JPMorgan plus many opportunities

1

Digital-first Locality Bank opens brick and mortar HQ

Locality Bank, the first community bank to open in South Florida in more than 10 years, opened a 2,500 square-foot Fort Lauderdale headquarters. The newly renovated free-standing building was designed with small business environment in mind. The space has a co-working feel with multiple break out rooms for clients to utilize.

“With increased year over year growth from local businesses and entrepreneurs, there was no better place to open a community bank,” said Corey LeBlanc, Locality Bank Co-Founder and COO/CTO. “We have built our headquarters like our bank – it’s agile, more efficient, and can keep up with the ever-changing, forward-thinking needs of our clients.”

For the past two years, the digital-first community bank has been operating out of Fort Lauderdale’s General Provision co-working space. There, co-founders Keith Costello, Corey LeBlanc and Drew Saito developed a successful business model, registered the bank with FDIC, raised $38 million in capital, met with investors, and officially launched Locality Bank. General Provision will continue to serve as a satellite office for Locality Bank.

Since launching in January of 2022, Locality Bank has y accumulated more than $130 million in bank assets, up from $110 million four months ago. The bank has provided $65 million in loans to local businesses. It has 28 employees.

2

MoonPay makes first acquisition: Nightshift

Web3 infrastructure firm MoonPay made its first acquisition, scooping up Toronto-based creative studio Nightshift for an undisclosed amount. Nightshift, based in Toronto, will rebrand to Otherlife by MoonPay in the wake of the deal, according to a company release. 

“There was a big opportunity for us to come together and now be able to offer the end-to-end lifecycle support for big brands,” said MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright. “Now we can go to any brand that has an idea or wants to enter Web3, and we can help them execute a full end-to-end strategy.”

Having first started as a fintech, offering a way to buy crypto products with fiat currency, Miami-based MoonPay has made a play for the NFT space over the last year. In June, it launched Hypermint, a service that lets brands mint up to 100 million digital assets at once. Read more in The Block.

3

SVB, Synapse team up to offer $150K pitch competition

Miami startups are eligible to win a $150k investment with Launch: Startup Pitch Competition. The pitch competition powered by Synapse Florida and Silicon Valley Bank is looking for Florida-based, technology-focused startups who are making an impact on the Sunshine State.

The pitch competition is open to tech-focused, Florida companies less than 3 years old that need a venture capital investment. Additionally, nominated companies must currently have less than $2M of funding and actively be selling products or services. 

 The deadline to submit a nomination is Feb. 7 (nominate here). Companies will present first on Feb. 13, with the top three companies giving a second pitch on Feb. 14 on Center Stage at the Synapse Summit in Tampa, where the winner will be announced. Las Olas Venture Partners, DeepWork Capital and Tesseract Venture Fund are partners.

In Miami, there is a free event about perfecting your pitch on Feb 1 at Base Miami. RSVP here.

Allie Love, Steve Case and Kathy Wood are among the 140 speakers at the all-day Synapse Summit. More info here.

4

DataCore of Fort Lauderdale acquires UK company

DataCore Software, a Fort Lauderdale-based provider of application-centric solutions for edge and high-growth markets, including media and entertainment, acquired Object Matrix, a Cardiff, UK-based object storage and media archive provider. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Led by CEO Dave Zabrowski, DataCore Software is dedicated to delivering solutions to solve the most challenging storage problems. DataCore’s Swarm speeds up content monetization for media professionals.

5

PeakActivity makes acquisition

PeakActivity, a Boynton Beach -based eCommerce and technology services company, recently acquired Lexima, an eCommerce software agency specializing in eCommerce platform technology implementations.

Leadership, expertise, and excellence drive everything we do here at PeakActivity,” says PeakActivity CEO, Manish B. Hirapara. “Having Lexima as part of our team further strengthens our depth of expertise. With Lexima’s eCommerce experts onboard, PeakActivity is now even better positioned to provide value quickly, effectively, and at scale.”

6

JPMorgan makes Entrepreneur Ready accelerator program available free

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Foundation has awarded Entrepreneur Ready a grant to provide 300 seats each in the City of Miami and New York City for their entrepreneurship acceleration program.
The program supports small businesses and startups founded by minorities and women and is available at no cost to participants.

Through the program, participants will receive a certificate of completion after 6-10 months, step-by-step support as they launch their business with the guidance of experienced entrepreneur coaches, and connections to other like-minded entrepreneurs in their community.. Apply here.

PLUS

Opportunity knocks

  • Seaworthy Collective, a Miami-based BlueTech community and venture studio, is launching a Founder Mentorship Program offering a year-round opportunity to become part of our startup pipeline. In this program, Seaworthy works with current founders on a regular basis to drive tangible results and growth. Apply here by Jan. 27.
  • On Feb. 7, Venture Miami is hosting a pitch competition in partnership with eMerge Americas and Silicon Valley Bank to celebrate Black History Month by giving eight startups the opportunity to showcase their businesses to a panel of judges, receive feedback, and win cash prizes. The live event, free and open to the public, will be at 5:30 pm Feb. 7 at Monty’s Coconut Grove, with $40K in prizes awarded.  The top two winners will also get fast-tracked into the 2023 eMerge Americas Startup Showcase for the opportunity to win $420,000 in investment into their company. Join the competition using this link: https://venturemia.org/pitch. Register as a guest here.
  • Atlanta-based Founders and Funders of Color will be hosting an event at MDC’s The Idea Center Jan. 30-Feb. 1. With a mission to provide capital and support for Black and Latina/o entrepreneurs, their agenda focuses on startups looking to raise their first round or having just done so and looking for revenue impact strategies. To register,go here.
  • The 1909 Accelerator Program is taking applications for its 6 month program, which is designed to help early stage founders develop their businesses further along and simultaneously help build meaningful lifestyles. Because profitability is not the only form of success. Apply by March 17.
  • Endeavor Miami’s EndeavorLAB, a cohort-based initiative to support underrepresented founders in Florida in building a foundation for scale, has announced it is accepting applications for  a new seven-week cohort for startups led by Latinx founders that will be powered by VensureHR. Scholarships covering the costs are provided to participants. Learn more and apply here by Feb. 5.
  • Endeavor Miami’s ScaleUp Program is a cohort-based initiative that helps equip high-growth founders in Florida with the network and resources to gain clarity on their path to scale. Up to 10 companies following its global selection criteria for high-impact entrepreneurs. Apply by Jan. 29.
  • At IDEA Showcase @ ITEXPO, pitch your unique value proposition – then the audience and judging panel each determine who is the most disruptive. Apply by Jan. 27. 

ICYMI:

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Nancy Dahlberg