For decades, seawalls have served one purpose: keep the water out. Along Florida’s coastline, where stronger storms, rising seas, and aging infrastructure are forcing cities to rethink how they protect the shore, one Miami startup believes they can do much more.
That vision has attracted another wave of investor confidence.
Miami-based Kind Designs announced this week that it closed a $10 million Pre-Series A funding round after originally seeking just $5 million. Investor demand nearly reached $20 million, prompting the company to double the size of the raise. The round values the company at $70 million and brings its total funding to $21.5 million.
The investor list includes returning backers Mark Cuban and former Washington, D.C., mayor Adrian Fenty, alongside new investor and NBA forward Kyle Kuzma.
The funding comes as Kind Designs moves well beyond its early days serving homeowners. The company generated $1 million in revenue during 2025 but says it has already secured $10 million in contracted revenue and built an active pipeline worth $175 million. That growth has been fueled by projects spanning municipalities, luxury hotels, and the U.S. military, including a recently awarded $2 million contract with the U.S. Navy.
Using large-scale 3D printing and ecological engineering, Kind Designs develops Living Seawalls, artificial reefs, and other shoreline systems designed to protect coastlines while encouraging marine life.
“The seawall industry is a multi-hundred-billion-dollar market that has never had a true technology company,” founder and CEO Anya Freeman shared in the company’s announcement. “We’re building one of America’s most important tech companies to put resiliency on the map as the next great industrial category.”
That vision resonated with Cuban, who has now invested in multiple funding rounds.
“Most climate founders pitch you on saving the planet. Anya pitched me on an opportunity to disrupt a multi-billion-dollar coastal infrastructure market in a way that’s faster, cheaper, and also better for the environment,” Cuban said.
“Kind Designs continues to cement itself as a leading innovator in coastal resiliency and is a perfect reminder that you can both ‘do well’ and ‘do good,’” he continued. “This is why I wrote another check into the company.”
Kind Designs’ recent projects include installations at Fontainebleau, Pagani, and the Ritz-Carlton in Miami Beach, alongside municipal work in Miami Shores and Longboat Key. The company has also landed projects in New York City, Charleston, and Nassau, while expanding into California.
The startup is also benefiting from policy changes. Miami-Dade County recently updated its seawall codes to provide expedited permitting and environmental mitigation exemptions for Kind Designs’ systems, while Florida has directed the Department of Environmental Protection to develop incentives supporting Living Seawall adoption statewide.
The new funding will help the company expand into new markets, increase production capacity, hire additional engineers, and support larger municipal and federal projects.
“We’re done building at the pace permission allows,” Freeman said. “The technology is proven. The demand is here. Now it’s about scaling a new generation of coastal infrastructure that protects America while making this country more beautiful.”
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
- Kind Designs raises $5M to scale its 3D-printed Living Seawalls, with Mark Cuban returning as an investor
- Sealor secures $1.1M to tackle South Florida’s flooding problem
- Seaworthy Collective’s Startup Showcase put South Florida’s bluetech scene on full display
- Living seawall: How a waterfront church, with a Miami startup’s help, is making a historic impact on the environment
- How FIU researchers are helping robots think for themselves to protect the environment
