1
Mark your calendar for inaugural Israel Tech Week
The Magic City already has an annual Miami Tech Week. Now it also has an Israel Tech Week. The week-long series of over 15 events across Miami and Miami Beach is set to showcase Israeli innovation and highlight South Florida’s growing reputation as a leading tech hub.
Israel Tech Week 2025 will debut March 27 – April 3. With 2,500 expected attendees, the event aims to strengthen the growing collaboration between the United States and Israeli tech ecosystems by hosting exclusive dinners, cultural events and industry panels. It will also feature keynote talks by more than 50 tech innovators, venture capitalists, startup founders, and industry leaders. On the last day of the conference, attendees will experience the ISRTW Startup Showcase, featuring over 25 Israeli founders showcasing their breakthrough solutions.
“The week-long event will be a platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration between the Israel and Miami tech ecosystem. Additionally, it will showcase Miami as the best opportunity for startups to position themselves in the U.S. market and LATAM,” said Lior Halabi, co-founder and CEO of Israel Tech Week. Find out more here.
READ MORE IN REFRESH: Israel’s Catalyst Investors’ Club platform eyes Miami to expand across the Americas
2
Magic Leap in global top 100 ranking
LexisNexis Legal and Professional today announced its annual “Top 100 Global Innovators” for 2025, a list of the 100 companies around the world that are driving innovation in the global economy, based on exceptional shifts in the quality of their patent portfolios over the last two years. The 100 companies were identified through a LexisNexis analysis across a database of nearly 16 million global patent families. The list contains dozens of major global players across industries, including five of the seven largest tech giants.
There was only one Florida company to make the list: Magic Leap, the pioneering augmented reality technology company based in Plantation. Magic Leap’s patent portfolio expanded by 15% from 745 to 852 patent families from 2022-2024 while maintaining a high quality (or “Competitive Impact”) score of 8.7, meaning the quality of Magic Leap’s patent portfolio was 8.7x the industry average. Competitive Impact measures the relative quality of the patent families in a portfolio compared to other patent families in the same field, with a score of 1 being equal to the industry average.
For the fourth consecutive year, the US dominated the global innovators list with 47 companies. The US was followed by Germany (12), China (7) Korea (7) and Japan (5).
“From trillion-dollar giants to startups whose entire team could fit into a movie theatre, this year’s Top 100 Global Innovators span the spectrum, but they share a common commitment to pushing the frontiers of research and advancing human knowledge,” said Marco Richter, LexisNexis’ senior director of IP Analytics and Strategy.
Download the Innovation Momentum 2025: The Global Top 100 Report here.
3
Cathie Wood’s Ark launches early-stage web3 fund
Tampa venture investors Chris Pizzo and Kyle Schroeder are partnering with Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management to launch a new fund for early-stage digital asset and Web3 startups. Pizzo said the ARK Digital Asset Innovation Fund plans to raise $50 million, with a hard cap at $100 million when it closes. The fund is the first of its kind for Ark, which is well-known on Wall Street for its actively managed exchange-traded funds.
The firm also has an interval fund focused on later-stage venture investments, but the Ark Digital Asset Innovation Fund is its first private, close-ended venture investment vehicle. The fund extends Ark’s reach across the innovation continuum, from pre-seed investments to initial public offerings and beyond. Read more in Tampa Bay Inno.
4
FAU joins ranks as an R1 research institution
In 2025, the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education designated Florida Atlantic University as R1: Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production. Only 5% of the nation’s 4,000 universities have achieved this accolade.
This distinction highlights FAU’s commitment to excellence in research and education, creating a magnet to draw in world-class faculty, top-tier students, new funding sources and global collaboration, according to the 60-year-old university in Boca Raton.
South Florida now can boast a trifecta of R1s. Florida International University and University of Miami are also R1 institutions.
5
New City of Miami resource for startups
Keith Carsell, director of Miami’s Department of Economic Innovation and Development, announced a new resource for website: https://eidmiami.org/
The department’s new website is designed to connect entrepreneurs and businesses with valuable resources, including s step-by-step guidance on starting a business in the City of Miami, details on how to join the third cohort of the Built in Miami program, and the latest data on Miami’s leading industries and economic landscape.
6
Autoket wins $100K prize pitch competition
Autoket, an AI-powered B2B marketplace for automotive fleet parts, took first place in the place in The PenFed Foundation Pitch Competition, part of the 4th Annual Military Veteran Startup Conference (MVS25) in San Francisco. This event is all about bringing together veteran entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders to share insights, build connections, and support the growing community of veteran-led startups. The prize: A $50,000 grant from the PenFed Foundation and $50,000 in pro bono legal services from Holland & Knight LLP.
“I remember attending The Military Veteran event three years ago for the first time, listening to a panel of incredible veteran entrepreneurs and thinking, ‘Maybe that could be me one day…’ I left inspired, determined to learn and take advantage of game-changing veteran entrepreneur programs offered by Warrior Rising, The PenFed Foundation, IVMF BunkerLabs/Institute for Veterans and Military Families – IVMF, VetsinTech.” said co-founder and CEO Charles Masters. His advice to veteran entrepreneurs. “Keep pushing, keep learning, and keep showing up.”
READ MORE IN REFRESH: AI, meet auto parts: A sector just begging for disruption
7
Arcee AI launches flagship product
Arcee AI, which is developing an agentic AI solution for enterprises, launched its new flagship product, Arcee Orchestra. Last year, the Miami-based startup raised $24 million to transform the landscale of small language models.
Arcee Orchestra is a turnkey, end-to-end agentic platform that makes it easy for companies to build, test, deploy, and scale generative AI agents and agentic networks through workflows. “Most importantly, it’s powered by our state-of-the-art SLMs, which couple world-class performance with cost efficiency, the company said in a LinkedIn post.
8
Florida tech salaries up 12%
Technology industry employees in Florida are earning higher salaries, according to a recent report from Dice, a career site for tech industry. The average tech salary in the state reached $116,939 last year, surpassing the national average of $112,521.
Compensation in Florida was up 12.1% year-over year, making it the only state to achieve double-digit growth, and the The Sunshine State ranks fifth for technology industry pay in the U.S., according to the report. It follows New York ($121,246), California ($120,942), Georgia ($120,768) and Virginia ($117,073). Silicon Valley area had the highest salaries at an average of $131,332. Read more in the South Florida Business Journal.
PLUS
Opportunity knocks
- GET Champions Miami, run by Radical Partners, is an initiative that helps leaders create workplaces that attract, retain, and support diverse tech talent. This 4-month program is designed for forward-2thinking tech leaders to reshape their companies’ hiring, retention, and support systems for women, trans, and nonbinary employees, and offers free virtual training, exectuve coaching and invitations to hiring events for accessing top talent.
- Endeavor Miami is accepting applications for its next ScaleUp Program. Apply for the ScaleUp program here. Endeavor Miami is also taking applications for two of its upcoming 2025 EndeavorLab programs for earlier state startups. Apply here by May 9th for the EndeavorLab Black Founders cohort and apply here by August 22 for the EndeavorLab Women Founders cohort.
- Applications for the next 35 Mules Accelerator Program opened on Feb 17th. If you’re a Pre-Seed to Series A startup looking for expert mentorship, $100K in no-equity funding, and access to top-tier coaching and VC connections, find our more and apply here.
- Over the next two years, the Miami Startup Internship Program will co-fund internships for at least 200 high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds, connecting them with Miami’s leading startups and small businesses. These eight to 12-week, full-time, paid summer internships are designed to help students gain hands-on experience while supporting business growth in the community. If your business can host interns this summer, learn more and apply below by Feb. 21.
ICYMI
- Latest funding news: Investors bet $50.4M on Miami-based Dorsia, a member-based reservation platform for top venues
- Aracor AI raises $4.5M to make legal teams faster and more efficient
- Kandji bases its East Coast HQ in ‘the new frontier of tech’ – and it’s hiring
- Moderne raises $30M Series B to continue driving mass-scale code modernization
- With 10 million users in tow, Paysend’s big bet on Miami is paying off
- Boomerang, the lost & found platform, delivers a 10X growth year: ‘Our work is not done’
- Recent special report: From tech to turf, Miami is flexing its sportstech muscles
Have news to report? Email Nancy Dahlberg at nancy@refreshmiami.com and follow her on X @ndahlberg. Subscribe to Refresh Miami’s free weekly newsletter here featuring startup news, tech job opportunities and events. Thank you for supporting Refresh Miami.
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