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3 things to know in #MiamiTech this week: Accelerator news, a relocation, and a new startup resource

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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1) TheVentureCity offers more funding to accelerating startups
TheVentureCity rolled out its accelerator program last year, called The Garden. Today, it announced it’s improving the terms of the program 5X – and that means more funding for founders.
Instead of $20K investments, TheVentureCity will be making $100K investments in the companies it selects for The Garden, a six-month program, in exchange for 6 percent equity.
TheVentureCity, founded by Laura González-Estéfani and Clara Bullrich, says it will continue to continue its founder-centric approach, providing tailored one-on-one instruction and growth and international expertise. It also says it will continue to keep its focus on up to 25 selected startups per year, between its Miami and Madrid locations. Only startups with more than six months of double-digit growth are eligible to join The Garden.
Andrés Dancausa, a new member of the team who created and grew two companies (SofiaSquare and iAhorro), says founders “shouldnot see us as mentors, but as an extension of their team to help and advise what to do at each step and to be the experienced expert in the room when things are complex.”
Miami’s Fastmind was among the first graduates of the accelerator. Says TheVentureCity: “Eddy Prado, Jorge Prado and Luis Alejandro Hernández have grown up from Miami converting a simple game application into a powerful viralization tool through that allows creators to share their scattered works on different platforms (ex: a song) a single link.”
Apply for The Garden accelerator here by Nov. 1 to be considered the next cohort.
2) A #MiamiTech welcome to Genius Plaza
We’ve seen the team at events around town the past few months and the company has been actively hiring too, but the South Florida Business Journal’s article this week made it more official: Genius Plaza, an ed-tech company focused on servicing underserved communities, has relocated from New York to downtown Miami.
CEO Ana Roca Casto said the company selected Miami over Austin and Pittsburgh, with the area’s diversity and the airport being key reasons. It has 60 employees in Miami now and expects to grow to 100 by early next year, she told the Business Journal. Genius Plaza was founded in 2013 and its platform is already in 22 countries. In Miami, it joins a growing ed-tech sector, including Nearpod, ClassWallet and Caribu.
Read the Business Journal’s story here.
3) Get counted: Add your startups to the relaunched Startup.Miami
Since you are reading this on Refresh Miami’s site, you’ve probably already registered your startup here. Now you can also add it to Startup.Miami, a rich resource site for #miamitech redesigned, expanded and relaunched this week. Check it out here.
 
Got a #MiamiTech news tip? Email [email protected]. Follow me @ndahlberg

Nancy Dahlberg
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