• Miami has risen to the top 30 startup ecosystems globally, ranking 23rd, with a significant increase in ecosystem value and early-stage funding.
• The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro region attracted $5.5 billion in venture capital across 423 agreements, surpassing other growing cities like Austin and Charlotte.
• Miami’s success in the tech startup marketplace, fueled by embracing emerging technologies like cryptocurrency and Web3, has been highlighted, along with the presence of major tech startups like Insigneo Financial Group and Moonpay.

The City of Miami is sustaining its forward momentum in supporting new businesses, surging into the top 30 startup ecosystems worldwide in the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2023, produced by Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network.

According to the report’s findings, Miami’s ecosystem value increased by 160 percent in 2022, and early-stage funding increased by 64 percent. These developments helped the area move up 10 spots in the rankings between 2022 and 2023 from 33rd up to 23rd. The region was also home to the second-largest exit in North America with medtech company MSP Recovery, which was valued at $32.6 billion when it IPOd last month.

“Miami has made impressive progress, making it into the top 30 ecosystems at number 23, an improvement of 10 positions from last year,” concludes the report.

The broader Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro region reported $5.5 billion in venture capital last year across 423 agreements, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, surpassing similarly burgeoning cities like Austin, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina. The city also saw an increase in deals by nearly 12 percent during a period that saw many investors reserve funds for better economic conditions.

Miami has found particular success in the tech startup marketplace, which Justin Sayfie, the founder of Sayfie Review, punctuated last year with a proclamation that “the 2020s will be to Miami what the 1990s were to Silicon Valley” as municipal leaders, including now-Presidential candidate Francis Suarez, embraced emerging technologies like cryptocurrency and Web3.

Some of the city’s largest tech startups include Insigneo Financial Group and Moonpay, which reported $99 million and $67.2 million in revenue, respectively.

The report comes on the heels of Florida being named the best state in the country to start a business in, with credit lender Capital on Tap, who compiled the ranking, pointing to the state’s 5.5 percent corporate tax rate and abundance of jobs created through startup companies.

To aid in startup creation, Florida received $488.4 million from the U.S. Treasury last year under the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). Through the SSBCI funding, the state will operate five programs: a collateral support program, a loan participation program, a loan guarantee program, an equity/venture capital program, and a capital access program.

The Treasury disclosed that Florida allocated $250 million to the collateral support program, which works to provide cash collateral accounts to financial institutions in order to enhance the collateral coverage of borrowers.