The Tampa Bay region was the second most active ecosystem for VC in Q2 and the first half of 2026. We have more local, state and national trends, too.
South Florida startups attracted nearly $2 billion in venture capital in the first two quarters of this year, according to PitchBook’s data. In Q2 only, Miami metro area startups attracted at least $832 million, PitchBook reports.
While results did slow down In Q2, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area retained its position as a top 10 US VC hub for deal count, coming in tied with Austin at No. 5, and 10th for deal dollars against other US tech hubs, according to the Q2 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report out today.
And together with Q1, the Q2 results put our region on track to meet or potentially exceed the $4.13 billion that South Florida startups reeled in in 2025, the best year since the pandemic high in 2022.
Let’s take a deeper look at local, state and national trends and top deals.
The South Florida picture: A mix of sector strength
For Q2 2026, PitchBook reported that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area pulled in $832 million across 100 deals. That’s down slightly from a revised $1.1 billion across 111 deals in Q1, when three medtech megarounds – OpenEvidence, eMed and ILiAD Biotechnologies – accounted for $565 million of that total, according to PitchBook’s data that was used in the Venture Monitor.
While medtech led the top deals in Q1, Q2 brought a trifecta of medtech, fintech and AI action. The average deal size in Q2 was $8.3 million.
Q2 top deals: According to PitchBook’s data, here were the top Q2 rounds by companies headquartered in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area.
- Syncromune, a Fort Lauderdale-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, raised $145 million, according to PitchBook’s data.
- Karta, a Miami-based financial technology offering a U.S.-issued credit card designed specifically for internationally mobile consumers, attracted a $140 million equity and debt round.
- Hydra Host, a Miami-based software startup that seeks to turn overlooked data centers into AI powerhouses, raised $100 million.
- EB5 United, a Miami-based global financial services firm providing EB-5 investment opportunities, raised $60.3 million.
- Flex, an Aventura-based AI-driven platform modernizing the self-storage industry, raised $50.1 million.
- Canals, a Miami-based software startup modernizing B2B wholesale distribution, raised $35 million.
- FundKite, a Miami-based fintech providing access to small business funding, raised $31.4 million.
- Haro Ross, a Miami-based B2B consulting services firm, raised $30 million.
- Upside, a Fort Lauderdale startup integrating housing stability with healthcare, secured $20 million.
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. What’s more, Refresh Miami reported sizable deals in Q2 that weren’t included in PitchBook’s findings: Interchecks’ $50 million funding, Golden Child’s $37 million funding and Subquadratic’s $29 million raise, to name a few. There were also large Miami rounds in Q1 that weren’t part of PitchBook’s report.
It’s been extremely quiet on the exit front so far this year. In Q2, there were only 6 exits for South Florida companies in Q2, none with dollar values. In Q1 the largest exit tracked by PitchBook was Ostro, a Miami-based healthtech company with an exit value of $100 million.
As for raises by funds, the picture is only a little bit brighter. Led by Anti Fund’s $100 million raise for its Growth I fund, 14 South Florida funds have attracted over $300 million so far this year, about the same as all of last year (2025 hit an 8-year low) with another half to go. Still, the totals badly trail South Florida-based VC firms’ fund-raising activity in 2019 through 2024.
2026 Q2 Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor
The Florida picture: Tampa Bay surges
Statewide, according to data underlying PitchBook’s new report, Florida companies drew $1.3 billion across 169 deals in Q2. That’s down from a revised $1.8 billion across 178 deals in Q1 2026, but the total for the year so far is $3.1 billion across 347 deals.
Just like for the Miami metro, the state is on track for another strong year. Florida looks likely to best the state’s 2025 VC results 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’s venture activity, representing 63% of deal value and 59% of the deal count in Q2.
According to PitchBook’s data, the top deal around the state outside of South Florida in Q2 was St. Petersburg’s Climate First Bank’s $67.5 million raise. That was followed by Star Catcher ($65 million), a defense tech firm out of Jacksonville, and The Bank of Tampa ($50.2 million). Upshot League, a media company also from Jacksonville, raised $40 million.
As for Florida’s metro areas in Q2, Tampa Bay startups have surpassed $330 million so far this year. The area’s startups raised $209.8 million across 25 deals in Q2 adding to the $129.6 million (18 deals) in Q1. However, that number deserves a big asterik because Pitchbook’s accounting does not include nearby Sarasota, which is often included in the Tampa Bay ecosystem. In the first half, startups in the Sarasota area alone attracted $318.4 million, led by the $250 million Q1 round by TENEX AI reported by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. With that big deal and others, Tampa Bay area startups attracted $232 million in Q2 and $657.8 million in the first half, according to the data including Sarasota, putting the region on track for its best year in at least 12 years (the years I have been tracking data).
Jacksonville startups, meanwhile, raised $111 million across six deals in Q2, bringing the total so far this year to just over $122 million across 16 deals. Two of the state’s top 10 deals were from Jacksonville: Star Catcher and Upsot League.
Orlando startups pulled in $42.9 million across 11 deals in Q2, down from $145.4 million across 23 deals in Q1 and bringing the year to date total to $188 million. The Space Coast logged $7.7 million in four deals in Q2 and $37.3 across two days in Q1. Adding the neighboring Space Coast to Orlando would bring the Q2 total to $50.6 million (15 deals) and $233 million for both quarters.
In Q2 across the state, there were 13 exits with no values disclosed. In Q1 across the state, there were 6 exits valued at $1.4 billion, according to PitchBook’s data.
The top raise by a fund outside South Florida was Florida Funders’ $60 million Fund 3.
The national picture: AI, AI, AI
U.S. venture capital activity in Q2 2026 fell back from Q1’s all-time high but still served up the second highest deal value in a decade. Total deal value in the first half hit a record $412.7 billion, exceeding 2025’s full year return by almost 30%. But the story of the first half is the highly concentrated market and of course AI, says PitchBook’s Kyle Stanford, Director of US Venture Research.
In the first half of 2026, megadeals (rounds of $100 million or more) made up 87.5% of the dollars deployed. Seven rounds – five of them AI companies – were above $1 billion, and totaled $87.2 billion. AI companies of all sizes totaled $355.9 billion or 86% of all venture dollars in the period.
Meanwhile, first-time financing are on pace to hit a record in the US, and that will mean more than 10,000 companies raised their first round. Valuations have recovered; in fact they exceed their 2021 highs.
Silicon Valley, including San Francisco, attracted the lion’s share of 1st half activity, attracting over $319 billion, or 77% of the US deal value.
Similar to venture rounds, exits were also highly concentrated. In Q2, SpaceX’s $1.7 trillion IPO generalted more value than all exits in the past decade combined, the report’s authors said. “However, without SpaceX, the quarter’s exit value would sit at a level consistent with the constrained environment of recent years,” the report said, adding that the window is opening narrowly for certain sectors like AI and space technology. In Q1 and Q2 combined, venture exits hit $2.19 trillion in total value.
“SpaceX’s IPO was the first of three potential trillion-dollar listings by US VC-backed companies in 2026, and what many want to view as the opening of an IPO window. The scale of these companies is their differentiating factor, though, largely boxing out the rest of VC from public markets. The pipeline of companies in IPO registration remains low, and broad liquidity hasn’t yet returned, leaving exit value very concentrated through Q2, and very likely through the rest of 2026,” said. Nizar Tarhuni, PitchBook’s Executive VP of Research & Market Intelligence.
The story was much the same for venture firm’s fundraising. Nearly half went to just three firms in the first half. That would be Andreessen Horowitz, which closed seven funds worth $14.2 billion, Thrive Capital, with $10 billion closed across two funds closed, and Founders Fund, with $10.6 billion closed across two funds.
Tarhuni continued: “The same concentration is showing up in how capital gets raised: nearly half of all H1 capital commitments went to just three firms Among them, that came to $34.8 billion, or 48% of every fundraising dollar in the half, and managers with track records pulled in more than 9 out of every 10 dollars deployed into venture funds. LPs aren’t spreading bets anymore – they’re consolidating around track records and brands, a response to five years of thin distributions. This year’s numbers will look like a recovery, but for most of the industry, it likely won’t feel like one.”
Download the Q2 2026 Venture Monitor report here.
Separately, PitchBook announced today the launch of Time to Exit, a new predictive tool within its VC Exit Predictor that forecasts when a venture-backed company is likely to exit. Powered by machine learning, Time to Exit estimates the probability of a successful exit within one, three, or five years, bringing timing intelligence to a question that has long relied on manual modeling or instinct.
Graphics in this article are from the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.
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