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Miami tech leaders say they need immigrants, Startup FIU is movin’ on up

This week, we heard a lot about the alleged culture of sexual harassment at Uber — first from a blog post from a former employee, then in a followup report from The New York Times.   

As you may have heard, similar allegations have now been made in a lawsuit against Magic Leap. While South Florida continues to produce an impressive crop of female entrepreneurs, the lawsuit shows that the region is not immune to the factors that appear to plague tech companies everywhere.

It’s something the community must continually be on guard for. If you’ve seen companies taking positive steps to address this issue, or you’ve experienced issues in your own workplace here, we’d like to hear more. Shoot us a note at [email protected].  

More than half of Miami businesses were founded by immigrants

That’s according to Ted Hutchinson, Florida organizing director for FWD.us, a nonprofit group, the Herald’s Nancy Dahlberg reports. And just as many are probably employees. At an event sponsored by FWD this week, immigrant CEOs from a host of Miami startups gathered to talk about the role immigration plays at their companies. Anton Diego, the CEO EveryMundo, which develops marketing automation software for airlines and was an early entrant to Miami’s tech scene, said his company has 54 full-time employees in Miami, 30 of whom were born outside the United States, Dahlberg writes. A quarter of them are working for Everymundo on professional visas.

“We need to be able to recruit outside the United states and look South,” Diego said. Some of our top developers come to the U.S., they bring their families … and they teach junior developers their skills.”

Nymbus raises $16 million

Another week, another Miami startup raising eight figures. One week after MealPal announced its funding round, Nymbus, a financial technology company based in Miami Beach, announced they secured $16 million in a funding round led by European finance group Home Credit Group. The round comes just six months after Nymbus closed on a $12 million round.

Nymbus specializes in technology that allows smaller banks to transform their digital operations to better compete with larger institutions. Its calling card is a user-friendly dashboard that lets banks manage all their assets.

“The traditional banking model is being massively disrupted and NYMBUS is best positioned to stand at the core of this transformation,” Miroslav Boublik, Group Head of Special Projects for Home Credit International, said in a release. “The company is led by a talented, experienced executive team and, in our assessment, NYMBUS’ technology is both many years ahead of traditional banking system vendors and most viable among emerging FinTech providers.”

MDLive becomes first company to offer virtual psychiatric services in all 50 states

Sunrise-based MDLive announced last week it has now contracted psychiatrists in each state to perform virtual care consultations, becoming the first telehealth company to do so. This means that its network now has the ability to prescribe medication in every state.

More than 4,000 counties in the U.S. — at least one in every state — have a mental health professional shortage, amounting to 60%of adults with a mental illness unable to receive mental health services in the previous year, MDLive says.

MDLive was last valued at $666 million dollars according to Funderbeam.

StartUP FIU ribbon cutting Monday

StartUp FIU is moving into its new offices Monday, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. on the 3rd Floor of the MARC Building in Doral. Directed by Wifredo Fernandez, cofounder of The LAB, StartUP FIU was launched to promote entrepreneurship among students, faculty/staff, alumni and the South Florida community.

SFIU is also planning to expand its food entrepreneurship program. On Tuesday, SFIU will host Felecia Hatcher, cofounder of Feverish Pops (among other titles), and Leticia Pollock, cofounder of Panther Coffee, to discuss startups and food.   

Editor’s note: This post was updated after publication with additional information not available at the original publishing time.

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By Rob Wile
Rob Wile, the curator for Startup.Miami, is a writer and entrepreneur living in Miami Beach. He’s a former staff writer for Fusion and Business Insider. His work has also appeared in Slate, Newsweek, Money Magazine and The New Tropic. He writes a newsletter on tech, business, and the South Florida economy called The Heatwave.