3 things to know in #MiamiTech: a $9M investment, startup finalists named and a new early-stage fund

Tellus of Deerfield Beach raises $9 million Series B round
Tellus, a provider of Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) technology solutions, announced that it has closed a $9 million Series B financing round led by Carroll Capital and including additional investors. The proceeds will be used to fuel its national expansion, the company said.
Based in Deerfield Beach, Tellus provides an end-to-end EVV solution that includes a point-of-care mobile app, administrator console, claims console, business intelligence and reporting and powerful data aggregation, the company said. Tellus allows all third-party software tools to integrate with its open platform. Clients include state Medicaid departments, managed care organizations and health care provider agencies.
“We believe this successful capital round accurately reflects our past performance as we scale our EVV technology platform across the country,” said Tellus CEO Brad Levine, in the announcement.
LAB Ventures names finalists for real estate-tech pitch competition
LAB Ventures, the venture-building arm of The LAB Miami, has selected the 10 startup finalists to advance in the Global Startup Pitch Competition that will take place at the Future of Real Estate Tech Summit 2019, and three of the companies are based in South Florida.
During the May 14 event, finalists will pitch their concepts to a panel of judges from Colliers International, Related Group, Krillion Ventures, Plug and Play and Metro1. At the conference, finalists can participate in one-on-one meetings with top-tier investors and executives from companies such as Building Ventures, JLL Spark, Moderne Ventures, Bozzuto and Suffolk Construction.
Each of the selected finalists already has revenue and an active product in the market that has passed the prototype phase. All have raised less than $5 million and have been in business for less than five years. Last year’s winner was Gridics, the Miami-based, software platform that simplifies complex real estate development and acquisition decisions.
“At The LAB Miami, we provide resources and mentorship to help build some of the most exciting startups in South Florida, as well as help connect them with potential customers and partners,” said Thomas ‘Tigre’ Wenrich, CEO of LAB Ventures. “Over the past 18 months, our focus has moved squarely to the real estate and construction space, and this year’s summit will bring together the industry’s brightest minds to provide personalized feedback to this carefully selected group of progressive and promising entrepreneurs, positively impacting the future of real estate.”
The 10 2019 Global Startup Pitch Competition finalists are (local companies are in bold):
Licify (Bogota, Colombia) – A specialized procurement management platform that generates an efficient and transparent community with developers, contractors, and suppliers.
Prompto (Ghent, Belgium) – A service that allows you to design and sell a property before it’s built.
Sisu (Bountiful, Utah) – A sales performance management and business intelligence software platform for the real estate and mortgage industry.
LIKK Technologies (Miami) – A smart building early water leak alert and mitigation platform that allows you to keep a building dryer, safer, greener and smarter.  
Tap2Open (Boca Raton) – A unique smartphone access control system for gated communities, office buildings, storage facilities, parking lots and more.
Kwant AI (New York, N.Y.) – An analytics platform using Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence to increase productivity and safety on construction sites.
Zeki by Razz (Miami) – An entirely flexible marketing content management system that property managers and real estate teams use to attract tenants.
Cove.tool (Atlanta) –  An app designed to allow architects, engineers, contractors, and owners to save money, comply with the latest energy codes, and make effective design decisions.
Leasecake (Winter Park, Fla.) – A software platform that simplifies the real estate leasing experience for small to medium-sized property owners and managers.
Avvir (New York) – A service that unleashes the potential of building information modeling technology by closing the feedback loop and keeping building models continuously updated.
The competition’s first place winner will receive $50,000 in Digital Ocean Credits and access to its Hatch Program, $6,000 in Sendgrid Credits, $2,000 in legal services from Private Advising Group, $3,600 in co-working space at The LAB Miami, and access to the Colliers Proptech Accelerator Powered by Techstars program.
LAB Ventures, the venture-building arm of The LAB Miami, also runs annual “Future Of…” summits and pitch competitions for the logistics and travel industries.
3 New Florida seed fund takes root
St. Petersburg.-based investment firm SeedFunders is launching a $5 million fund for early stage companies.
Led by fund partner Irv Cohen, SeedFunders shares the risk, investing alongside the Catalyst Fund, led by Joe Hamilton, with a 40/60 funding model to facilitate 30-50 investments of $100K to $500K each in early state tech companies. To increase the likelihood of success, partners of the firm take an active role in growing each company as hands-on board members bringing their expertise and network to the mix, the announcement said.
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Nancy Dahlberg