INNOVATION

A Dream Venture

Startup CEO Matteo Franceschetti, an Italian-born former securities lawyer, moved from New York to Miami last year amid the pandemic, bringing his company, Eight Sleep, with him. Backed by $85 million in private equity, Eight Sleep makes mattresses designed to improve sleep through thermoregulation. The mattresses, which start at $2,445, have built-in biometric tracking sensors and a connected tank that feeds warm or cool water to a thin layer within each bed side to maintain a user’s ideal body temperature.

An app provides personalized data on everything from tosses and turns to heart rate and length of deep-sleep cycles. The company also sells a $1,720 mattress pad cover that uses the same technology to heat or cool on demand based on a user’s changing body temperature.

“People used to say, ‘Oh, I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’ But going to sleep is not a waste of time,” says Franceschetti, who grew up in northeastern Italy skiing, playing tennis and racing cars. “Going to sleep is valuable for your cognitive and physical performance and your longevity. Put the effort into going to sleep for seven to nine hours every day, and this will be reflected across the board in your life, in your mood, energy and health.”

EDUCATION

• Law firm Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman joined with Florida Memorial University in Opa-locka to launch a program designed to prepare local black students for legal careers starting in high school.

REAL ESTATE

• Miami Beach is seeking proposals from developers to transform a series of parking lots and garages near Lincoln Road into class A office space.
• Developer Jeffrey Berkowitz canceled plans to build SkyRise Miami, a 1,000-foot observation tower planned for downtown, citing financial turmoil caused by COVID-19.
• Wharton Equity and Cross Lake Partners sold a 92,972-sq.-ft. development site known as the Burdines property in downtown Miami for $46 million to Uruguayan investor Enrique Manhard. Miamibased TSG, Lineaire Group and Bridge Investment are building Wynwood Haus, a 20-story, 224-unit apartment project near a Metromover station in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. The development is to be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
• The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office leased 50,000 square feet of office space at River Landing, a new mixed-use development on the Miami River.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

• Houston-based Banorte Securities International, an investment management and brokerage firm, will open an office in the Brickell area of Miami to serve clients from Mexico and Latin America.
• New York-based hedge fund D1 Capital Partners leased 25,000 square feet at a new building in Coconut Grove.
• Los Angeles-based Thorofare Capital, a commercial real estate lender, will open an office in Miami to pursue more business in the southeastern U.S.
• Miami-based Apollo Bank created a residential lending division to serve new clients moving from out of state.

TECHNOLOGY

• Atom Finance, a consumer software platform that provides stock and earnings information, will hire 20 people for a new Miami office after raising $28 million in a funding round led by SoftBank’s Latin America fund.
• Israeli hospitality tech startup Tabit, which has its U.S. headquarters in Miami, plans to employ 30 to 40 people locally by the end of the year, up from 15 currently. Miami-based blockchain technology company Securitize raised $48 million in a round co-led by Morgan Stanley.
• SoftBank, Miami-Dade County, Miami and the Beacon Council are sponsoring about three dozen residents from underrepresented communities to participate in a 13-week online data science training program created by Correlation One.

HEALTH CARE

• Miami-based medical device startup RapidPulse, which develops minimally invasive vascular products for treating stroke patients, raised $15 million in venture capital.
• The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce launched Greater Health Trust, a discounted health insurance offering through Kendall-based AvMed. The plan provides small-group premium discounts of up to 30% for chamber-member businesses with 50 or fewer employees.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• A delegation of Portuguese officials, including Portugal’s ambassador to the U.S., Domingos Fezas Vital, visited World Trade Center Miami to expand business ties between the European country and South Florida.

TRANSPORTATION

• Miramar-based low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines plans to launch flights to 30 cities from Miami International Airport this fall.

PHILANTHROPY

• The Miami Foundation awarded $1 million to 19 blackled social justice organizations through its racial equity fund.

ENVIRONMENT

• Monroe County officials unveiled a plan to spend $1.8 billion over the next 25 years to elevate 150 miles of roads to protect the Keys from sea-level rise, though it’s unclear how they plan to pay for the project.

HOSPITALITY

• Miami-based Carnival Cruise Line will add two ships by the end of 2023, giving the company 27 vessels. Mr. Krymwood, an eight-story, 76-room hotel under development in Wynwood, is scheduled to open by October 2023.

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