Jan 14, 2025

Miami area venture capital closes out 2024 looking a lot like 2023 By Nancy Dahlberg South Florida startups reeled in enough venture capital to close out the year without losing ground, even though deal count slowed up significantly during Q4, according to new data from Pitchbook released today. For the year, the 2024 results about the same as 2023, according to the Q4 Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor report. Nationally, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro retained its position as a top 10 US VC hub. Venture activity across the US had a better showing in 2024 than 2023. Let’s take a deeper look at local, state, and national trends. The South Florida picture For Q4 2024, Pitchbook reported that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area pulled in $587.06 million. That was up from a significantly revised $453.53 million in Q3 2023 — and the best showing of the year, according to Pitchbook’s data. We can’t say the same for deal count. Q4 deal count – at just 68 deals for South Florida startups –  was down from the revised 74 deals counted by Pitchbook for Q3. Although deal count began trending up in 2023, it’s been trending down in 2024: The count was also down from the revised 111 deals Pitchbook counted for Q1, and 94 deals in Q4 2023. Indeed, according to Pitchbook, the quarterly deal count is the lowest since Q4 of 2020. It’s also the lowest deal count by year since 2020. Top deals According to Pitchbook’s data, here were the top 5 rounds by companies headquartered in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area in Q4: Doorloop, a Miami-based proptech company, raised $100 million in a Series B round. Synchromune, a biotechnology company, also raised $100 million as part of a Series A round. The later stage financial services company, Accumulator, raised $46 million in an early-stage deal. The fintech NovoPayment raised $40 million in a Series A2. Urbint, a later stage company, raised $35 million in a series C2 round. Not included by Pitchbook was another significant round: Vultr hauled in  $333 million in its first venture capital round ever. It was the year’s top deal, Refresh Miami reported. Venture reporting lags and all of these figures will be revised over the months, but this provides a snapshot of how South Florida stands now. For the year 2024, according to Pitchbook data, South Florida startups have raised just over $2 million across 341 deals, about the same as 2023 by deal value but with a lower deal count (398 deals were logged for 2023). By my reporting for the  2023 eMerge Insights report , the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area pulled in  $2.4 billion in 2023 , and in my upcoming full-year report, I will be analyzing multiple sources of funding data, including Pitchbook’s. My preliminary reporting shows that South Florida will log a better showing than 2023. Stay tuned! How does South Florida rank nationally as a VC hub in the US? Glad you asked. Here’s what Pitchbook’s data shows: According to Pitchbook’s data, in Q4 the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area ranked 9th nationally by amount of funding and 7th by number of deals, ranking it among the top 10 10 US tech hubs. In Q4, South Florida companies accounted for 70% of total dollars raised across Florida, and 64% of the deal count. For the year, the Miami metro also ranked nationally, ranking 10th by amount of funding and 8th by number of deals . There were three exits for South Florida companies recorded for Q4, according to Pitchbook, but only one with a deal value reported: Jupiter Neurosciences’ IPO, an exit valued at $129 million. Refresh Miami reported on these exits in Q4:  Blankfactor ,  Sustainabase and Kinatrax. In total there were 21 exits in 2024, up from 19 in 2023. Fund-raising for the year was $1.29 billion, led by Miami-based Bling Capital’s $270 million FQ4und IV fundraise. The total for the year bested 2023 but was the second lowest since 2018, according to Pitchbook data. Still, Bling Capital is bullish about the year ahead: “We believe that it is a great time to be an entrepreneur. AI will touch nearly every industry and sector, including our core focus areas: vertical and horizontal software, healthcare, financial services, consumer internet, and marketplaces,” Bling said at the time of the Q4 fundraise. The Florida picture Statewide, according to data underlying Pitchbook’s new report, Florida companies drew $836.6 million across 106 deals in Q4 2024. By dollar value, that was down from a revised $884.91 across 136  deals in Q3 2024. It’s also down from a revised $996.45 across 153 in Q4 2023. Top deals around the state outside South Florida in Q4 were led by a $78 million late-stage deal raised by Orasis Pharmaceuticals of Jacksonville and a $42 million late stage deal raised by logistics startup One Rail of Orlando. In the Space Coast, Space Perspective, which is preparing to offer flights to the edge of space, raised a $17 million Series A, and in Tampa, iink Payments, a later stage fintech, raised $13.2 million As for other Florida metro areas in Q4, Jacksonville attracted $81.2 million across 3 deals ($108 million for the year); Orlando attracted $64.66 million across 11 deals ($303.1 million for the year); Tampa Bay area attracted $46.9 million across 9 deals ($204.4 million for the year); and the Space Coast lured $17 million across 1 dale ($109.9 million for the year). In 2024, Florida companies have raised just over $3.4 billion in venture capital across 570 deals, according to Pitchbook data. That’s down from 2023, when companies across the state raised $3.7 million across 652 deals, according to Pitchbook’s revised data for 2023. In Q4 there were 4 exits recorded for the state and 39 over the year. The national picture  To be sure, the pace of dealmaking was remarkably slower in 2024 compared with the flurry of oversubscribed rounds from the pandemic years, but on the bright side, venture activity is showing promising signs of recovery. Deal activity increased at nearly all stages, with pre-seed/seed and early-stage deals notching 2024 highs and late-stage deals seeing a slight bounce back after two consecutive quarters of declines. Thanks to a strong Q4 nationally ($74.6 billion), venture capital activity turned upward in 2024, leaving 2023 — the lowpoint since 2018 — in the rearview mirror. In 2024, Pitchbook reports $209 billion was invested across 15,260 deals. That’s up from the $162.2 billion across 14,712 deals for 2023. What has happened is that the excess of dry powder from the high fundraising years of 2021 and 2022 have kept many investors active in the market despite the lack of returns, said Pitchbook Lead Analyst Kyle Stanford. Still, he said, fundraising was dominated by large, established firms. Just 30 firms accounted for more than 68% of total fundraising value in 2024. This is a trend that has been developing over the past few years, but hit the forefront last year. Artificial intelligence, however, continues to be the story of the market, and drove just shy of 50% of dollars for all venture capital in 2024. OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, and others have become synonymous with outsized deals in venture, and seemingly operate in a different funding environment than most VC-backed companies who continue to struggle with lower capital availability, Stanford said. The lack of exits continues to dog the venture market, even as the outlook is more hopeful. Just $149.2 billion in exit value was created during 2024, largely coming from a handful of IPOs. M&A was also silent in 2024, with few large deals to note. A more acquisition-friendly environment in 2025 could set the stage for a renewed M&A market, especially if a soft-landing for the economy can be fully engineered, Stanford said. Looking ahead, there’s a sense of cautious optimism for VCs and entrepreneurs heading into 2025 after a strong quarter with the highest investment levels since mid-2022, said Bobby Franklin, President and CEO at NVCA. “Changes in leadership at the FTC and DOJ could ease some liquidity challenges for portfolio companies, and changes at the SEC could right-size the regulatory burdens at firms. With more VCs stepping into government roles and engaging actively on Capitol Hill, the venture industry has a unique opportunity to highlight the critical role of venture-backed companies in driving economic growth and maintaining American competitiveness. The tax bill currently making its way through Congress is especially significant, with the potential to incentivize innovation, reinstate the R&D tax credit, and support the broader ecosystem.”