1
Dark Watch bags a $3.5M seed round
Dark Watch, a South Florida startup based in Stuart, has raised an oversubscribed $3.5 million seed round led by Eagle Venture Fund with participation from His Kingdom Resources and Blu Ventures.
The company is developing an AI-powered “Know Your Guest” safety intelligence platform for the hospitality industry, designed to detect high-risk individuals before they check in. By embedding real-time threat intelligence directly into hotel reservation, payment, and booking systems, Dark Watch aims to prevent criminal activity without disrupting legitimate travelers or guest experiences.
“Criminal networks exploit the same digital infrastructure that powers modern hospitality – payments, reservations, and booking systems. Hotels shouldn’t have to choose between guest experience and safety. Dark Watch embeds real-time threat intelligence directly into those systems to stop bad actors before check-in, without disrupting legitimate travelers. This funding allows us to scale that capability across the industry,” said Dark Watch CEO, in a statement.
The funding will help the company accelerate product development, deepen integrations with hospitality enterprise systems, and expand commercial deployments. Dark Watch reports that its platform uses a proprietary data system and AI models that analyze more than 450 million profiles using deep web intelligence to identify threats linked to organized crime, trafficking, and terrorism, helping hospitality, finance, and law enforcement organizations proactively screen for risk. “This round positions the company to scale its product and go-to-market capabilities, bringing advanced threat intelligence solutions to a broader and increasingly global customer base,” said Blu Venture Investors Partner Ted Olsen.
2
Propy makes key multi-million dollar acquisition
Propy, the Miami-based startup powering AI-driven real estate transactions, recently announced the multi-million dollar acquisition of Boss Law’s title division, a firm specializing in the complex, high-volume requirements of institutional REITs and professional wholesale investors across Florida. This marks a major milestone in national AI-led roll-up strategy since securing its $100 million credit facility earlier this year; terms of the new acquisition were not released.
According to Propy, the deal brings Boss Law’s operation, including offices in St. Petersburg and Seminole, under the Propy Title banner. The acquisition also onboards a sophisticated institutional client base, including three of the country’s largest residential real estate REITs with over $10 billion AUM and the country’s largest wholesale investor, Propy saio.
“We’re excited to expand into the institutional market, where large real estate operators need infrastructure that can support closings at scale,” said Propy founder and CEO Natalia Karayaneva, in the announcement. “With closing attorney Chris Boss joining us, we’re accelerating Propy’s adoption among REITs and institutional real estate investors nationwide.”
READ MORE: Propy secures $100M credit facility to modernize title and escrow
3
West Palm-based drone maker Powerus to go public
Powerus builds and scales autonomous drone systems for military and commercial use in high-risk environments. The West Palm Beach-based company is being merged with the publicly traded Aureus Greenway Holdings, which is backed by the sons of President Donald Trump, to take the drone maker public. Upon completion of the merger, the combined company will operate under the name Powerus Corporation. The merger is expected to close this summer.
“Powerus was built by individuals who have spent years operating in active combat environments where this technology must perform. We know what works, we’ve seen what fails, and what operators relying on these systems actually need,” said Brett Velicovich, co-founder of Powerus and a former U.S. Army special operations veteran himself. “The opportunity in front of us is significant, and we intend to capture it.”
Powerus says it is building a platform for acquiring, integrating, and scaling autonomous systems designed to operate in high-consequence environments across defense, critical infrastructure, and precision agriculture. “This business combination is not just a compelling opportunity for AGH stockholders, but one made even more relevant by current geopolitical uncertainties… The UAS platform they are building addresses large-scale, real-world demand,” said Matthew J. Saker, interim CEO of AGH.
Kissimmee-based Aureus Greenway Holdings owns and operates golf course properties across Florida. When the merger closes, those properties could serve as demonstration grounds for Powerus’ precision agriculture drone systems, the South Florida Business Journal reported. Other defense and dual-use drone manufacturing companies in South Florida include Poland-based EU Motors, which recently opened a 2,500-square-foot drone manufacturing facility in Hallandale, and Puerto Rico-based Red Cat Holdings, which headquarters its maritime division in West Palm Beach.
4
Flow completes Worldcenter condo tower
Flow, the venture-backed real estate company co-founded by Adam Neumann, has completed construction of Flow House, a 41-story condominium tower in downtown Miami’s Worldcenter district, in partnership with South Florida-based real estate development firm Merrimac Ventures. Flow House’s 466 fully furnished residences range from studios to two-bedrooms with prices start at $480,000.
Flow, with existing or planned developments in South Florida and Saudi Arabia, is on a mission to transform the residential experience. Flow House features more than 46,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities, including a 126-foot lap pool, spa with sauna and steam rooms, cold plunge, and meditation and practice rooms, Zen Garden and more, as well as coworking spaces, private offices, conference rooms, a podcast studio, and a Flow Social Club. “At Flow, we believe a home should be more than just where you live,” said Neumann.
5
Glade Brook Capital Partners closes $1B+ fund
Glade Brook Capital Partners, a Miami and Greenwich, CT-based global growth equity investment firm, closed Glade Brook Gondola Fund, at over $1 billion. The fund – the firm’s 6th technology growth equity fund – was anchored by funds and accounts managed by StepStone Group, which served as lead investor, with participation from funds and accounts managed by affiliates of BlackRock.
Glade Brook specializes on later-stage growth investments, with a focus on technology and technology-enabled businesses across AI, SpaceTech, DefenseTech, Internet and FinTech. The firm reports that is manages $4 billion+ in assets and leads growth financing rounds at Series A and beyond.
Founded in 2011 by Chief Investment Officer Paul Hudson, Glade Brook has partnered with growth-stage companies, including SpaceX, Revolut, Stripe, Ramp, Zepto, xAI, Databricks, Stoke Space, Saronic, Physical Intelligence, EliseAI, Airbnb, Alibaba Group, Uber and Zomato, among others. “Through the Gondola Fund and across our greater portfolio, we remain optimistic on the pace of innovation to come in the years ahead,” Hudson said.
6
First In closes $148M Fund 3
First In, a Pam Beach County-based early-stage venture capital firm, closed its First In Fund 3 SBIC Critical Technologies, a fund licensed as part of the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technologies (SBIC-CT) program. The fund, which closed with investor commitments and SBA-guaranteed leverage of $148 million, will focus its investments in early-stage security technology businesses.
First In was approved by the U.S. Small Business Administration as an SBIC-CT licensee as part of the federal government’s effort to expand private investment into sectors essential to U.S. national security and economic resilience. The firm partners with technologists, practitioners and leaders building technologies critical to commercial resilience and national security.
Founded in 2020 and led by Managing Parner Renny McPherson and General Partner Arthur Karell, First In is invests in cybersecurity, defense technology and data-driven security platforms. First In was an early investor in defense technology company Castelion as well as Adlumin, a cybersecurity company acquired by N-able.
7
Jobs, jobs, jobs
Candex – Product Manager
Candex – RVP, Customer Success
Chewy – Sr Financial Analyst
Chewy – Sr Program Manager
FirmPilot – Software Engineer
Kaseya – Financial Operations Analyst
Kore.ai – Sr SRE Engineer (DevOps)
LuftCar – Director of Customer Discovery
Neural Earth – AI/ML Engineer
Neural Earth – Product Marketing Manager
Xendoo – Sr Accountant
Find more jobs on Refresh Miami’s job board here.
8-PLUS
Opportunity knocks
Palantir is seeking American high school students who’ve found a problem worth solving — and are ready to confront it now. If selected, you’ll receive a $10,000 Valley Forge grant, full access to Palantir’s software platform, and support from Palantir engineers. Apply here by March 30. [Read MORE: Palantir plants its HQ flag in Miami]
Join the eMerge AI Hackathon, a day of building AI solutions, on April 18. Judges from Meta, Lightship Capital and Haize Labs are already on board. Register here.
Israeli founders can showcase their startup, product, or breakthrough solution to global investors, partners and media at Israel Tech Week Miami 2026 in April. Apply by March 15 here.
ICYMI – Catch up!
Have news to report? Email Nancy Dahlberg at [email protected] and follow her on X @ndahlberg and on LinkedIn. Subscribe to Refresh Miami’s free weekly newsletter here featuring startup news, tech job opportunities and events.
I am a writer and editor with extensive media experience and a passion for journalism and serving the community. Most of my career has been spent with the Miami Herald in business news, and my expertise is writing about tech and entrepreneurs. I love hosting this blog for Refresh Miami and we aim to be the go-to site for South Florida startup and tech news, features and views. Have news? Contact me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading! Latest posts by Nancy Dahlberg (see all)