Also in Q3, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area retained its position as a top 10 US VC hub for deal count, coming in 6th, more deals than Austin, Washington DC, Seattle and Austin, according to the Q3\u00a0PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor<\/a> report out today. Among US tech hubs, South Florida also ranked 10th for deal dollars.<\/p>\n To be sure, venture capital data lags and these results are likely to grow; PitchBook and other sources revise their data constantly because new reporting comes in, rounds get reopened, startups relocate, etc.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s take a deeper look at local, state and national trends and top deals.<\/p>\n The South Florida picture: A mix of sector strength<\/p>\n For Q3 2026, PitchBook reported that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area pulled in 1.14 billion across 119 deals, including the late September $250K round by OpenEvidence. That\u2019s up from a revised 109 deals deals in Q2<\/a>. That\u2019s comparable to Q1, when three medtech megarounds \u2013 OpenEvidence<\/a> (with its first round of the year), eMed<\/a> and ILiAD Biotechnologies<\/a> \u2013 accounted for $565 million of that total, according to PitchBook\u2019s data that was used in the Venture Monitor.<\/p>\n While medtech led the top deals in Q1 and Q2 brought a trifecta of medtech, fintech and AI action, in Q3 it was also mix, with financial services and medtech leading the way. The average Q3 deal size was $9.8 million, up from $8.5 million last quarter.<\/p>\n According to PitchBook\u2019s data, here are more of the top Q3 rounds by companies headquartered in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area:<\/p>\n Unrivaled<\/a>, the Miami-based women\u2019s basketball team: $106 million.<\/p>\n SplitPay<\/a>, a Miami fintech: $100 million.<\/p>\n Flex<\/a>, another Miami fintech: $70 million<\/p>\n Exuma Biotech, a life sciences startup: $70 million<\/p>\n Physical Superintelligance, a Miami-based AI software startup: $58 million<\/p>\n RapidPulse<\/a>, a Miami-based therapeutic device maker: $48 million<\/p>\n TravelX<\/a>, a Miami-based travel tech startup: $45 million<\/p>\n PilotAI, a fintech in the crypto space: $35 million<\/p>\n Comp AI<\/a>, a Miami-based compliance software startup: $35 million<\/p>\n Notably, Pitchbook\u2019s data did not include two other Q3 mega-rounds that Refresh Miami has reported on. Those would be the cross-border fintech F\u00e9lix<\/a> ($200 million equity and debt found) and the stablecoin-focused fintech Jeeves<\/a> ($110 million), which would add several hundred million more to the Q3 and full-year totals. PitchBook included those two rounds in other metro areas.<\/p>\n For the first three quarters, South Florida startups attracted at least $3.14 billion in venture capital, according to PitchBook\u2019s data. With this total plus missing and lagging data, the Miami metro area is on track to very likely exceed the $4.13 billion<\/a> that South Florida startups reeled in in 2025 according to my reporting for the eMerge Insights report. If so, it would be the best year since the pandemic high in 2022.<\/p>\n On the exit front, Miami-based fintech Securitize, with the slogan \u201cTokanize the World,\u201d fired up a relatively quiet year for exits in South Florida with its $1.25 billion public debut<\/a> in July. In total in Q3, there were 8 exits for South Florida companies in Q3, according to PitchBook\u2019s data.<\/p>\n As for raises by funds, the picture is also bright for South Florida. According to PitchBook\u2019s data, 28 South Florida funds have attracted over $716 million in Q3. Fundraising was led by Align Ventures $125 million raise<\/a> for its fund 2, $100 million for 1789 Capital for its fund 2, and Anti Fund\u2019s $100 million<\/a> raise for its Growth I fund.<\/p>\n The Florida picture: Orlando area delivers largest deals outside Miami<\/p>\n Statewide, according to data underlying PitchBook\u2019s new report, Florida companies drew $1.74 billion across 205 deals in Q3. That\u2019s up sharply from a revised $1.33 billion across 184 deals in Q2 2026, but the total for the year so far is $4.84 billion across 529 deals.<\/p>\n \u2713<\/p>\n Check your inbox for a confirmation email.<\/p>\n Just like for the Miami metro, the state is on track for another strong year.\u00a0 Florida looks likely to beat the state\u2019s\u00a02025 VC results<\/a> of $5.8 billion, which was up 41% over 2024, according to my research for the eMerge Americas Insights Report. South Florida continues to drive in most of the state\u2019s venture activity, representing 66% of deal value and 58% of the deal count in Q3.<\/p>\n According to PitchBook\u2019s data, the top Q3 deal around the state outside of South Florida was by Orlando-based cybersecurity company Threat Locker at $189 million<\/a>. That was followed by Orlando area-based network management software player Reco\u2019s $55 million<\/a> haul. The other eight in the top 10 were all from South Florida.<\/p>\n As for Florida\u2019s two largest metro areas in Q3, Orlando area startup raised $364.5 million across 25 deals. Tampa Bay area startups, meanwhile, raised $153.1 million across 21 deals in Q3. In the first three quarters, Orlando area startups attracted $523.5 across 59 deals, and Tampa Bay area startups attracted $442 million over 64 deals.<\/p>\n In Q3 across the state, there were 12 exits with a value of $2.2 billion. In the first three quarters, there were 30 exits valued at $3.6 billion, according to PitchBook\u2019s data. The top exit in Q3 outside South Florida was Orion180, a $948 million IPO for the Melbourne fintech.<\/p>\n We will share more complete results for the state and South Florida in the year-end reports, include my full-year deep dive for the eMerge Americas Insights Report.<\/p>\n The national picture: AI isn\u2019t the whole story<\/p>\n On the national front, AI\u2019s concentration in the venture ecosystem continued to deepen in 2026, accounting for the highest annual share of deal value in PitchBook\u2019s dataset. Although outsized deals in the first half of the year drove total deal value to record highs, Q3 deal value fell to post-pandemic levels, the Venture Monitor\u2019s First Look report said. The quarter\u2019s largest deal was the $5 billion investment in Databricks, but compare that to the multiple triple-digit billion-dollar deals in the first half. And that\u2019s not the whole story.<\/p>\n \u201cPeel back the layers on 2026 VC activity and it\u2019s clear companies are operating in different markets depending on their product. Deal value is already 44% ahead of the previous annual record, with a quarter still to go, but much of that capital has been raised by frontier model companies,\u201d said Nizar Tarhuni, Executive Vice President of Research & Market Intelligence at\u00a0PitchBook.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real story sits on the exit side, where the IPO pipeline keeps slipping further out and sellers are leaning on M&A to get anything done at all,\u201d Tarhuni continued. \u201cAnthropic and OpenAI have both pushed their listings, creating a\u00a0 further roadblock for tech and pressuring the growing backlog of private companies waiting\u00a0 for their shot.This year\u2019s numbers will look like a boom at the top line. But for most of the\u00a0 market, the liquidity won\u2019t show up, and that will have a large impact going into 2027.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On the exit front, SpaceX continues to dominate in 2026 and has been central to the three largest exits in US history. Its $60 billion all-stock purchase of Cursor in Q3 is the second-largest M&A deal involving a venture-backed company on record, trailing only its acquisition of xAI earlier this year. Setting aside these outliers, 2026\u2019s exit value remains at the same constrained level that has defined every year since the pandemic.<\/p>\n Smaller VC firms are also facing fundraising challenges. <\/p>\n \u201cInvestment in AI continues to push the boundaries of innovation, alongside exciting\u00a0 advances in robotics, advanced manufacturing, and aerospace. The pace of technological progress and the opportunities ahead are\u00a0 tremendous,\u201d said NVCA President and\u00a0CEO Bobby Franklin. \u201cBut the strength of that innovation can obscure growing challenges\u00a0 within the fundraising market. While topline numbers may appear resilient, capital is\u00a0 increasingly concentrated, and emerging and midsize firms are finding it harder to raise\u00a0 their next funds. America\u2019s innovation leadership depends\u00a0 on maintaining a broad and competitive investor base capable of finding and funding what\u00a0 comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n Download the Q3 2026 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report here<\/a> and stay tuned for my year-end reporting.<\/p>\n READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:<\/p>\n 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 ndahlbergbiz@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/pitchbookq3USresults.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Nancy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791459850_903_60b7851ea3a84-bpfull.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/a>Latest posts by Nancy Dahlberg (see all<\/a>)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUp, up, up: South Florida on way to another strong VC year, PitchBook\u2019s Q3 report shows<\/a> – October 8, 2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t8+ things to know in #MiamiTech: Mana Tech to launch Tech Cities of America; FAU reels in quantum grant; plus news from Global Ventures, HighPost Capital, PlanHub, Calculum, job opportunities & more<\/a> – October 7, 2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t10+ things to know in #MiamiTech: News about Ondas, Visium, Misfit Labs, OBE Power, The Xtream Group, Stephen Ross, Blue Frontier, Zeo Scientifix & more<\/a> – September 27, 2026\t\t\t\t \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenEvidence\u2019s $250 million raise in late September was South Florida\u2019s largest round of the third quarter, and it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-422179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}