Miami’s tech sector posts banner year in 2021. Here are the top 8 developments
Depending on your timeline, technology companies have called Miami-Dade County home for decades.
But in 2021, Miami tech became a nationwide movement that went into overdrive. As the pandemic bore down, tech entrepreneurs increasingly zeroed in on Miami and South Florida to do business, thanks to its relatively liberal public health safety rules, quality of life, geographic proximity and cultural resources.
Eventually, one entrepreneur, perhaps half jokingly, mused on Twitter about moving all of Northern California’s Silicon Valley to Miami — to which Miami Mayor Francis Suarez replied, “How can I help?”
That tweet now stands as the symbolic date, after which an avalanche of tech-enabled businesses, entrepreneurs and workers relocated to Miami.
In a year that saw continuous momentum, a handful of benchmark events and developments stood out that helped Miami establish legitimacy as a tech hub. Here are my top eight.
Suarez, Softbank exec announce $100 million investment
It was already clear by January that something special was happening in Miami tech, as chatter on social media began to build among influential technologists about making Miami the next big U.S. tech hub.
To capitalize on the momentum, Suarez and SoftBank chief operating officer Marcel Claure got together and announced the global venture firm would invest $100 million in Miami companies. By October, SoftBank said it had made 12 investments in Miami-linked startups for a total of $250 million, including Miami Heat arena sponsor and crypto exchange giant FTX, which said it expected to open a Miami office in 2022.
Elon Musk’s company proposes South Florida tunnels
Time Magazine’s 2021 Person of the Year found his way into South Florida headlines (and, according to rumors, Miami itself, at least briefly) when Elon Musk and his Boring Company said it was in talks with Miami — and, eventually, Fort Lauderdale and North Miami Beach — to build underground transit networks in the three cities.
Suarez, the Miami mayor, was first to announce he had spoken directly with Musk, with the vision morphing into a miles-long track that would run beneath the city’s downtown, ferrying passengers in Teslas to destinations and connecting with Miami-Dade’s existing transit network.
Then, Fort Lauderdale jumped into the mix when Mayor Dean Trantalis said in July the city had begun exploring a proposal to build a similar, Tesla-based system from the city’s downtown to Las Olas Beach.
And even North Miami Beach got in on the action, with Councilman Michael Joseph submitting a proposal to build a system through his city.
A spokesperson for Suarez said talks about the project are ongoing. Joseph and Trantalis could not be reached for an update.
Founders Fund, Atomic sign Wynwood leases
If business trends are increasingly about signaling, there was no more important beacon about Miami’s emergence in the tech world than the announcement in March that legendary Silicon Valley venture group Founders Fund would open a Miami office in Wynwood, and it’d be doing so alongside influential tech entrepreneur Jack Abraham and his Atomic venture studio.
Abraham and Founders Fund general partner Keith Rabois — a key figure among former Silicon Valley tech innovators now in Miami — would go on to announce the creation of an entirely new Miami company, Openstore, that they continue to hope will become the city’s most successful tech company.
World’s largest crypto conference
One year ago, it might have been hard to imagine the CEO of one of the most important tech companies in the world making headline-grabbing statements about the future of cryptocurrencies here.
But that is precisely what happened in April, when now-former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey keynoted the Bitcoin 2021 conference at the Mana Wynwood event space in Miami. Billed as the largest-ever crypto event, the conference saw about 12,000 guests descend on the city, many visiting for the first time. Dorsey was joined by other crypto figures including the Winklevoss twins, Twitter personality Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, investor Michael Saylor — and Tony Hawk, who did a live skateboarding demonstration.
The conference was so successful that it is returning to Miami-Dade in April, this time at the Miami Beach Convention Center, where at least double last year’s attendance is expected.
Miamicoin is born
In June, an ambitious project to transform the regional economy was unveiled by Citycoins, a group of developers who hope to use cryptocurrencies to fund municipalities. The intent is for the digital Miamicoins to generate money for city governments.
Given its rising status as a crypto hub, Citycoins chose Miami to launch its first official currency. To date, Miamicoin has generated some $20 million for Miami, which in September voted to accept the funds. While the city continues to face legal hurdles in its broader push to use cryptocurrency to do things like pay city employees — including Suarez himself — Miamicoins may prove pivotal in the city’s push to become America’s leading crypto adopter.
Microsoft opens in Brickell
Some three years after failing to land Amazon’s second headquarters, Miami landed another West Coast banner tech player when the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant announced a 50,000-square-foot Brickell lease in September. During a year when companies were announcing new Miami offices nearly every week, the news may have been overlooked by some. (Microsoft also did not say how many jobs it planned to locate in Brickell.) But it was arguably the most marquee tech name to land in Miami all year.
First countywide tech jobs fair
There was perhaps no better way to cap an unprecedented year than offering up what the Miami tech movement is all about: jobs and opportunity. at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson downtown campus Miami-Dade County, the city of Miami and the county’s four main colleges — Florida International University, Florida Memorial University, Miami Dade College, and the University of Miami — hosted a first-of-its-kind job fair Dec. 2. A wide range of job seekers turned out to meet dozens of tech firms that now call Miami home, including ones backed by the largest Silicon Valley venture firms in the world.
Melinda French Gates kicks off gender equity push
If Miami needed another sign of its legitimacy as an up-and-coming tech hub, it came this month when GET Cities backed by billionaire Melinda French Gates — investor, philanthropist, computer scientist and former wife to MIcrosoft co-founder Bill Gates — announced Miami as its next location. Similar work is underway in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The goal for the $50 million multiyear national effort is to bring more opportunities for women in tech hubs by tapping local academic institutions. In Miami, Florida International and industry players will partner to encourage, educate and place more women in key careers and management roles in the tech ecosystem.
This story was originally published December 19, 2021 at 1:00 AM.
