Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Miami-based Neocis develops robot-assisted dental surgery

INNOVATION

Robot-Assisted Dentistry

Miami-based Neocis is using $72 million in new funding to market and develop additional applications for its robotic dental surgery assistant, Yomi. Neocis bills Yomi as the first and only FDA-approved robotic device for dental implant surgery.

The device’s technology enables a surgeon to digitally map out an implant procedure based on 3-D imaging of the patient. The robot arm then guides the surgeon through the procedure by physically resisting any motion outside the bounds of the plan.

“Essentially, the doctor is only allowed to drill according to the plan they made, and if they change their mind in surgery, they can go into the software” and update the plan, says Neocis CEO and co-founder Alon Mozes, previously a principal engineer at Mako Surgical, where he helped develop a robotic system for orthopedic surgeons.

Neocis plans to expand Yomi’s capabilities to wisdom-tooth extractions, crown work and root canals, among other things. The company has retrofitted a bus with a mockup of a dental office to demonstrate Yomi to prospective customers nationwide.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

  • Private equity firm Blackstone plans to open an office in Miami with about 215 jobs.
  • Boston-based Santander Bank opened a branch in Miami.

TECHNOLOGY

  • Coral Gables-based PayCargo, whose cloud-based technology allows companies in the cargo industry to transact business electronically, raised $35 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Insight Partners.
  • Jeffery Kendall became CEO of banking technology company Nymbus, replacing founder Scott Killoh, who remains executive chairman and adviser to the management team. Kendall previously was executive vice president and general manager at banking software firm Kony DBX.
  • Miami-based startup Marco Financial, whose tech-enabled platform helps small and mid-sized businesses in Latin America get financing to begin exporting to the U.S., received $26 million in credit and equity funding.

REAL ESTATE

  • Minnesota-based health and wellness company Life Time is building a 495-unit apartment project in Coral Gables. The development will have a 70,000-sq.-ft. fitness center with cycle, yoga and cardio studios and access to nutritionists and personal trainers.
  • New York-based developer JDS will replace a fire station in Miami’s Brickell area with 1 Southside Park, a 64-story, 2.5-million-sq.-ft. mixed-use project. Plans call for more than 1,000 residential units, 200 hotel rooms and 200,000 square feet of office space, as well as a new firehouse and upgraded park.
  • Miami-based Related Group and Terra finished One Park Grove, the third and final condo tower at their five-acre development in Coconut Grove.
  • Coral Gables-based Magellan Housing and partner Udonis Haslem, a longtime Miami Heat player, received $6.5 million in city-owned land and a $9-million grant from Miami’s Omni Community Redevelopment Agency to build Wynwood Works, a 12-story, 104-unit workforce housing project in Wynwood.

HOSPITALITY

  • The 254-room Thesis Hotel opened near the University of Miami in Coral Gables.
  • Aventura-based ESJ Capital Partners wants to build a 300-room hotel at Miami’s Jungle Island attraction.
  • New York-based Infinity Hospitality plans to open a 145-room hotel spanning eight buildings in Miami Beach next year. Infinity ran the former Clay Hotel on the site until 2017, when damage from Hurricane Irma forced it to close.

MEDIA

  • The Miami Times, a newspaper founded by the Reeves family in 1923, purchased the Biscayne Times, a monthly publication.

EDUCATION

  • Miami Dade College’s School of Engineering and Technology will start a bachelor’s degree program in cyber-security next year.
  • Florida International University began offering a bachelor’s in cyber-security this fall.

HEALTH CARE

  • Health insurer Florida Blue named Doug Bartel market leader for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
  • Former Allergan CEO Brent Saunders plans to raise $400 million in an IPO for Miami Beach-based Vesper Healthcare Acquisition, a new acquisition company focused on the health care sector.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

  • The Miami Downtown Development Authority hopes to attract new businesses with cash. The DDA’s “Follow the Sun” campaign is offering up to $150,000 to out-of-state businesses that move to downtown Miami and create high-paying jobs over a three-year period.

OBITUARY

Supermarket Titan

Manuel “Manolo” Herrán, who built Hialeah-based Sedano’s Supermarkets into one of the country’s largest Hispanic retailers, died at 83 of complications from diabetes. Born in Spain, Herrán arrived in the U.S. via Cuba. He got his start in the grocery business by helping to run a bodega that his wife’s uncle, Armando Guerra, had acquired from company namesake Rene Sedano. Herrán took over the company after Guerra died in 1979. Today, Sedano’s has more than 30 stores in Florida and is led by Herrán’s son, Agustin.

COVID-19 UPDATE

  • Miami-Dade public schools will provide free meals to all students through the end of this year. In addition to serving breakfast and lunch to students who have returned for in-person classes, the district is offering free meals for pickup for remote learners.
  • The U.S. Department of Labor charged two Miami-area companies with violating the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The department says two workers who tested positive for COVID-19 got $3,110 in back pay after their employer, Milum, a trucking and transport company in Hialeah, denied them emergency paid sick leave. Meanwhile, a working parent at Martinez Truss in Medley received $4,352 in pay after the company denied a request for 80 hours of emergency paid sick leave and up to 10 weeks of expanded family medical leave to care for a child, the department says.

 

Read more in Florida Trend's December issue.
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