Miami area startups raised almost $900M in Q1, report says. Here are the top deals.
The funding represents a nearly a third of last year’s total but exits were elusive. We also bring you the statewide trends.
Startups in the Miami metro area got off to a strong start for venture capital in Q1, according to the Q1 Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor report. Nationally, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro retained its position as a top 10 US VC hub. Let’s take a deeper look at local, state, and national trends.
The South Florida picture
For Q1 2024, Pitchbook reported that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area pulled in $900 million across 67 deals. That was nearly on par with a revised $1 billion across 78 deals in Q4, according to Pitchbook’s revised Q4 data. However, the average deal size, at 13.4 million, slightly exceeded Q4.
The total represents a third of the deal value counted for 2024 – $2.77 billion across 358 deals – in the recent eMerge Insights report.
Q4 top deals: According to Pitchbook’s data, here were the top 10 rounds by companies headquartered in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area in Q1”
- Flex: This early-stage Miami fintech raised $225 million –$25 million in equity financing alongside a $200 million credit facility.
- One Amazon: this later-stage Miami fintech in the life sciences sector raised $105 million.
- Open Blue Cobia: this later-stage agtech company based in Miami raised $98.7 million.
- Ubiquia: This later-stage cleantech company in Fort Lauderdale raised $70.6 million.
- Sardine: This later-stage Miami-based network management software startup raised $70 million.
- Dorsia: This early-stage foodtech based in Miami, raised $50.4 million.
- SellersFi: This later-stage fintech based in Weston raised $44.8 million.
- Payabli: This later-stage fintech based in Miami raised $32.5 million.
- Doroni: This early-stage flying car maker in Pompano Beach raised $30 million.
- Prosper Health: This early-stage healthtech startup based in Weston raised $16.2 million.
The Q1 total for South Florida could go significantly higher. Not included by Pitchbook among top deals were sportstech startup Rocket Youth, which scored $100 million; software modernization startup Moderne that raised $30 million; Galatea Bio that raised $25 million; and on-chain ecommerce startup Crossmint that raised $23.6 million, according to Refresh MIami’s reporting.
In Q1 2025, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area ranked 8th nationally by amount of funding and 9th by number of deals. That puts it among the top 10 10 US tech hubs (see graphic at the bottom of this post).
There were no exits for South Florida companies recorded for Q4, according to Pitchbook.
The Florida picture
Statewide, according to data underlying Pitchbook’s new report, Florida companies drew $1.23 billion across 110 deals in Q1 2025. By dollar value, that was down from a revised $1.28 billion across 121 deals in Q4 2024. South Florida continues to drive in most of the venture activity, representing 73% of deal value and 60% of the deals.
Top deals around the state outside South Florida in Q1 were led by early-stage media company TMRW of Winter Park, which raised $82.9 million, and later-stage telecom company Terawave of Naples, which raised $44.4 million.
As for other Florida metro areas in Q4, Orlando attracted $190 million across 12 deals; Tampa Bay area attracted $70.5 million across 13 deals; and the Space Coast lured in $12 million deal of 5 deals.
Venture data lags and is constantly revised. In 2024, Florida companies raised $4.3 billion in venture capital across 610 deals, according to revised Pitchbook data. Notably, the revised figure is nearly $200 million more in dollars and 22 more deals than we reported using data downloaded in January for the eMerge Insights report.
In Q1, like in South Florida, there were no exits recorded by Pitchbook.
The national picture
Nationally, companies attracted $91.5 billion in venture capital across an estimated 3,990 deals, and the San Francisco Bay Area accounted for $58.7 billion of that. Still, the national total was an uptick over Q4 of 18.5% for deal value and 10.9% for deal count over Q4. As in Q4, the elevated deal value of Ai deals accounted for most of the total. That would include OpenAI’s $40 billion haul, Anthropic’s $4.5 billion across two rounds, $3 billion for Infinite Reality and $1.5 billion for Groq.
“Q1 2025 venture data reveals a rapidly evolving landscape. AI investments are dominating 71% of total deal value, yet the market remains bifurcated, leaving many companies struggling for capital. As we navigate these challenges, the future of American innovation depends on adopting wise policies in areas like taxation and regulation to ensure the stability and global competitiveness of our entrepreneurial ecosystem,” saidNVCA President and CEO Bobby Franklin.
Data continues to support the flight to quality among VC investors, the report said. The number of deals at or above $50 million as a share of all US VC deals increased to 6.6% in 2025 through Q1 from 3.9% in 2023. During the same period, the total share of deals priced at or below $5 million dropped to 36% from 42.9%, landing at the lowest level in a decade. In general, quality companies continue to receive the funding they need to grow, including AI startups with high cash burn.
The report auhors said that the uncertainty dominating US financial markets in Q1 has dimmed their outlook and prior expectation that 2025 would bring a resurgence in dealmaking and exits.
Nizar Tarhuni, executive vice president of Research & Market Intelligence at PitchBook, added:“The reality of a VC market rebound has likely faded as the effects of new tariffs and policy shifts take hold. These impacts amplify economic uncertainty and could further disrupt the private markets by complicating investment decisions, supply chains, exit windows and portfolio strategies. While this may eventually lead to new domestic investment and create opportunities, the overall environment is facing volatility, hesitation and structural change. Capital deployment and new fund commitments to VC were incredibly concentrated to several outsized transactions and established fund managers, and we should expect that concentration to be pushed further with the added uncertainty in today’s market.”
Download the Q1 2025 Venture Monitor report here.
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