This is the first issue of The South Florida Wire — a weekly, sourced-only roundup of the tech and VC news that actually matters from Miami to West Palm Beach.
Because it's issue #1, this one is a catch-up: the rounds and moves that define where South Florida stands in mid-August 2026. The theme is easy to spot — the region has graduated from relocation headlines to real capital formation. The biggest rounds of the year aren't lifestyle plays; they're AI infrastructure, payments rails, and healthtech, led by Kindred Ventures, Nvidia, Aon, and Coinbase Ventures.
Every item below is verified against primary reporting. If we can't source it, it doesn't run.
This week's rounds
A debut-issue snapshot: the rounds that shaped South Florida's 2026 so far, newest first.
- Cyclops — $20M Series A led by Nava Ventures, with Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle, and Global PayTech Ventures. The Miami startup, founded by The Giving Block's Alex Wilson and Pat Duffy, settles payments in stablecoins for clients including Shift4 and Mastercard — $28M raised total after a March seed (Fortune).
- Interchecks — $50M Series C from Bettor Capital, Commerce Ventures, Decades Holdings, and Thayer Street Partners for its Miami-based instant-payouts platform (Refresh Miami).
- Hydra Host — $100M Series A led by Kindred Ventures, with Nvidia, ARK Invest, Comcast Ventures, and Founders Fund, at a valuation approaching $800M. The Miami company brokers bare-metal GPU capacity from overlooked data centers for AI labs (Refresh Miami).
- Lexful — $7M seed co-led by Top Down Ventures and York IE for the Hallandale Beach startup rebuilding IT documentation for the AI era (Refresh Miami).
- eMed — $200M Series A at a $2B+ valuation led by Aon, with Tom Brady, Joe Lonsdale, and Antonio Gracias participating. The Miami GLP-1 employer platform is run by CEO Linda Yaccarino (PR Newswire).
Moves & openings
- Miami Angels + New World Angels — merged into a single $65M statewide angel network, combining Miami Angels' 60+ portfolio companies since 2013 with New World Angels' 22-year Boca Raton track record. One front door for Florida angel capital (Refresh Miami).
- Thiel Capital — opened a Miami office in Wynwood, complementing its Los Angeles operations, with the lease signed in December 2025. Founders Fund has been in Miami since February 2021; now the family office is here too (Business Wire).
- ServiceNow — the ~$200B enterprise software company leased 211,845 sq ft at 10 CityPlace in West Palm Beach, the largest corporate tech commitment Palm Beach County has landed, with 1,000+ hires planned by 2028 (our deep dive).
- OpenEvidence — the AI clinical search company that moved its HQ to Miami in 2025 hit a $12B valuation in January after a $250M Series D from Thrive Capital and DST Global — doubling its value in three months (MobiHealthNews).
Worth knowing
The check sizes changed, and that's the whole story. Three years ago the South Florida narrative was VCs buying houses. In 2026 it's Kindred and Nvidia writing into a $100M Miami Series A, Aon leading $200M into eMed, and OpenEvidence carrying a $12B valuation from a Miami HQ. When tier-1 leads price nine-figure rounds here without blinking, the "is Miami real" debate is over — the market settled it.
The angel merger matters more than any single round. Florida's early-stage problem was never capital — it was fragmentation. Miami Angels and New World Angels spent two decades running parallel processes 40 miles apart. One $65M network with a single application means seed founders stop doing the same pitch three times, and follow-on syndicates form statewide. That's plumbing, and plumbing is what turns a scene into an ecosystem.
Every round above lives in our South Florida Funding Tracker — the running, source-verified record of every SoFl tech round we can confirm. And if you're raising down here, start with the Miami VC firm directory to see who's actually writing checks. The Wire returns next Friday.
Written by Trace Cohen — 3x founder, 65+ investments, based in Boca Raton. South Florida resources · t@nyvp.com
Get VC data most people never see
— 100% free
Weekly benchmarks, valuations, and fund data. Join 5,000+ investors. No spam.