Technology company Kairos makes digital tools that recognize and understand people and their emotions. The software is able to determine everything from a person's identity to the person's age, gender and emotions. Some 7,000 developers in 20 countries have used the tools.

The technology is used to recognize unconscious patients when they're brought into an emergency room and to verify customers' identities at banks. Nike uses it in its European stores to scan crowds and determine the demographic profiles of shoppers. Cruise lines use it to identify people's faces in the photos their photographers take, so guests can ask to see all of the photos they are in.

Kairos CEO Brian Brackeen founded the 14-employee, Miami-based company in 2012.

In April, Kairos acquired IMRSV, which makes emotion analysis tools, and folded IMRSV into Kairos. At the time, Brackeen said Kairos was the only company that could offer facial biometrics and emotion analysis in a single set of tools.

Endeavor Entrepreneur, a global non-profit that provides mentoring, training, an advisory board and other support to entrepreneurs, selected Kairos as an Endeavor Entrepreneur last fall. That support, Brackeen says, has been critical as Kairos works on a $10-million investment round that will close in the first quarter of 2016. Endeavor has also committed to investing in Kairos.

As it raises money, Kairos is also in the process of buying another company (Brackeen won't name it), and Brackeen expects to make another two acquisitions next year. "I think we'll be really aggressive," he says. "I see us growing, minimum, 100% a year for the next five years." After that, he has his eye on an IPO.

Players

• Non-profit Take Stock in Children named Jillian Hasner president and CEO. She had been leading a business consulting firm.
• Real estate firm Colliers hired Kenneth Krasnow as executive managing director for south Florida. He had been a managing director at CBRE in south Florida.
• Software company Primestream hired David Schleifer as COO. He was formerly the head of Avid's broadcast business unit.
• Johnson & Wales University named Larry Rice president of its North Miami campus; Rice had been the campus's interim president since 2014.

Profile CourtBuddy

At its heart, CourtBuddy is simple: It matches attorneys with individuals or small businesses that need an attorney. Founded by wife and husband Kristina and James Jones, the site asks attorney-shoppers five questions, then uses an algorithm the company developed (it has a patent pending) to give the potential client the names of two local attorneys. Potential clients can pay for a membership that gives them access to more attorneys, and attorneys can pay per match or for a monthly membership. The company's main revenue source is advertising, says James, who also owns a law firm.

In March, CourtBuddy began matching attorneys and potential clients throughout Florida. Since then it has expanded into five more states.

California vs. Florida

There are almost as many angel investors in Florida as there are in California, but far fewer companies vying for money.

• 3,720 Florida startups
• 9,571 Investors
• 2. 57 Investors-to- Florida startups
• 31,135 California startups
• 10,711 Investors
• 0. 34 Investors-to- California startups

Business Briefs

CORAL GABLES - Charter airline XTRA Airways moved its headquarters from Boise, Idaho, to the same location as its parent company, AerLine Holdings. It also opened a new operations control center, which includes flight dispatch, maintenance control, logistics support and other functions.

MIAMI - Miami Dade College opened its Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex. > The Wynwood Yard community gathering space and culinary incubator is to open this month in the city's Wynwood district. It will include a bar and four food kiosks, whose operators will have the chance to pitch their concepts to investors, real estate developers and other business owners. Wexford Science & Technology, which owns the University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park, wants to expand the park with a hotel and office/ lab space that would include Cambridge Innovation Center co-working space. IMS Internet Media Services announced a partnership in which it will sell advertising directed at Latin American users within Redwood City, Calif.-based Electronic Arts' video games. > Dallas, Texas-based Rockpoint Group paid $113.5 million to purchase the 195,000-sq.-ft. Mary Brickell Village shopping center and parking garage from Quebec- based Cambridge. Matthew Greer, former CEO of Carlisle Development Group; the co-founders of affordable housing company Biscayne Housing Group, Gonzalo DeRamon and Michael Cox; and Rene Sierra, co-founder of Siltek Affordable Housing, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by inflating construction costs for affordable housing projects and giving or receiving kickbacks. Contractor Arturo Hevia of Design Management and Builders and B&K Construction Services President Michael Runyon pleaded guilty earlier this year to similar charges in the same case.

MIAMI BEACH - Amancio Ortega Gaona, who owns Zara clothing, purchased an entire block of Lincoln Road mall for $370 million. Miami Beachbased Fryd Properties and Comras CEO Michael Comras had owned the buildings for 16 years; they include recently built spaces for Apple and Gap. Owner HFZ Capital Group plans to redevelop the Shore Club hotel and condos, reopening it at the end of 2017 under the management of Brazilian firm Fasano instead of Morgans Hotel Group. It will be the first Fasano hotel in the U.S.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY - PortMiami and Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises formed a public-private partnership to build a new cruise terminal for the cruise line's largest ships. Royal Caribbean will occupy one of two new large berths approved in the port's 2010 master plan, investing around $100 million in the project. PortMiami is also expanding and renovating one of its exiting terminals and has completed a major dredging project. Interterra Investments Group paid $35.5 million for Miami International Centre, a 21- acre facility across from the Miami Intermodal Center immediately east of Miami International Airport. It plans to turn the property, which has a 90-slip marina. > Edmonton, Alberta-based Triple Five Group, which is planning the American Dream Miami mall and theme park in the northwestern part of the county, recently purchased another 24.6 acres for the development, which would be the largest mall and theme park in North America. > Scandinavian Airlines will begin direct service between Miami International Airport and Oslo, Norway, and Copenhagen, Denmark, in the fall of 2016, marking MIA's first direct service to those nations.