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News, highlights, and events throughout the Americas

Manny Medina Honored With Sand In My Shoes Award From Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce

The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce has announced that Manny Medina, Founder and Managing Partner of Medina Capital, Chairman of Cyxtera Technologies, Executive Chairman of Appgate, visionary and Founder of eMerge Americas, will be honored with the 2022 Sand in My Shoes Award®. The Chamber’s Sand in My Shoes Award, considered among this community’s most prestigious accolades, was established in 1981, based on an editorial delivered by Ralph Renick, the late WTVJ vice president and news director. The award is presented to outstanding community leaders who have made significant contributions to the region, demonstrating a deep love and commitment to Miami as the best possible place in which to live, work and play.

 

- South Florida Business Journal

Q&A With Dami Osunsanya, New Director At SoftBank Opportunity Fund

Dami Osunsanya is a new director in the SB Opportunity Fund, yet she’s not new to the SoftBank family. She joined SoftBank in 2019, at first working with the Vision Fund where she created and launched SoftBank’s first early-stage vehicle, an accelerator for under-represented founders, and sat on the investment committee there. She then was co-lead and head of value creation for the SB Opportunity Fund. During her time in that role, she moved back to Miami area, where she was born and raised. Refresh Miami sat down with Osunsanya to learn more about her Miami boomerang story – yes, she moved away and came back – as well as her views about Miami’s tech ecosystem and diversity and inclusion progress here and her work at SoftBank.

 

- Refresh Miami

Miami-Dade Pilots Smart Water Tech To Boost Revenue, Conserve Resources

Miami-Dade County plans to generate new revenue by doubling down on water sustainability. This month, the county partnered with Olea Edge Analytics to launch a four-month pilot program that deploys smart sensors to 25 commercial water meters in the area. That technology will help the county recover lost water revenue from those large commercial users – such as airports or manufacturing facilities – by ensuring they are billed correctly. Olea Edge Analytics uses smart sensors to digitize the detection of any water meter reading problems. Olea reports it identified more than $1 million in recoverable annual revenue when it launched a similar pilot program with the city of Atlanta in 2018. During the partnership the firm placed sensors on 19 water meters to identify malfunctions and common reading errors.

 

-Source: Miami Inno

Altro Raises $18M To Help Build Credit Just By Paying Your Netflix Subscription

Michael Broughton was the first in his family to go to college. But he almost didn’t, when he had trouble securing the necessary financing to pay his tuition. The experience stuck with him, and when he met Ayush Jain at the University of Southern California, the pair bonded over their belief that credit access should be free. They came up with the idea of helping people build credit through recurring payment forms such as digital subscriptions to Netflix, Spotify and Hulu. In December 2019, they started Altro — which started out as Perch Credit — and began hunkering down in a Hacker House with a few others to build out a platform that finds a person’s recurring transactions and connects them to a trade line that it reports to all three credit bureaus.

 

- Source: TechCrunch

VC Marcelo Claure Is Huge Believer In Latin America Amid Disruptions

Venture capital investor Marcelo Claure is all-in on Latin America.  “I’m a huge believer in Latin America,” Claure said at Bloomberg’s New Economy Gateway Latin America event in Panama City. “These last three years have been remarkable, even in these difficult times we have been able to get amazing returns.” The influential Bolivia-born investor, best known for turning around Sprint and preparing WeWork Inc. for its public listing during his time as chief operating officer for SoftBank International Corp, expects companies to flock to the region. Geopolitical developments show a supply chain too concentrated in one country is risky and that trend should result in “a lot of capital” being deployed in Latin America, especially in Mexico, he said via video on Wednesday.

 

-Source: Bloomberg

eMerge Americas x Ironhack Diversity in Tech Fund

Application Closes May 31st| Ironhack + eMerge Americas

 

eMerge Americas partners with Ironhack to offer $200,000 in scholarships to increase diversity in tech. Study Web Development, Data Analysis, or UX/UI Design and boost your career in the ever growing tech world. With the eMerge Americas x Ironhack Diversity in Tech Fund, we’ll award applicants from underrepresented communities who successfully pass the selection process.

Web3 Lunch + Learn

May 26th| JNF + TIE Council

 

The NFT auction opened on April 27, 2022, and will close following a free virtual event on May 26, 2022, where Jewish National Fund-USA’s Miami Real Estate Division and the South Florida-Israel Tech Innovation Entrepreneurship (TIE) Council, will host a panel of technology experts discussing Web3, the name technologists have given to the next iteration of the Internet built using decentralized blockchain technology. Event attendees will learn about cryptocurrency, NFTs, the metaverse, and blockchain.

Employment + Neurodiversity Training

May 26th| University of Miami - Nova Southeastern University

 

The training will provide an overview of Autism Spectrum Disorder and related disabilities, highlighting the many positive impacts of neurodiversity in the workplace and the specific skill sets and strengths that these individuals bring to your company or startup. Businesses will be introduced to strategies on how to recruit, interview, employ, support, and sustain a neurodiverse workplace — and reap the benefits of this untapped talent. 

Connect: Environmental Sustainability

May 31st| Publicize

 

Connect: Environmental Sustainability, is a pitch competition designed to bring together leading members of the media with startups focused on Sustainability innovation. At Connect: Environmental Sustainability, six innovative startups will pitch their ventures to a panel of Media Judges and receive valuable feedback about their companies before the panel selects a winner.

Bored Ape NFT Art Display

June 3rd| Miami Marlins

 

Join the Miami Marlins for an NFT Art Display at loanDepot park on Friday, June 3. Art lovers and baseball fans can experience approximately 20 pieces of NFT (non-fungible token) Bored Ape Art Display on the columns throughout the Promenade Level as they walk the ballpark. Fans can level up their access with tickets to the pre-game party experience at Recess Sports Lounge with the Magic City Apes from 5 - 6PM. The ticketed event is a first-of-its-kind experience at a Major League ballpark.

NAU Fest

June 10th-22nd| JA Americas

 

NAU Fest is a full-week virtual event created by JA in collaboration with Latin-American young adults, seeking to reconnect 50,000 underserved youth from 26 countries of the Americas with their future and the future of work. Our goal is to foster learning, inspiration, innovation and promote social inclusion and diversity of thought. NAU Fest is scheduled from June 10 to 22, 2022. 

eMerge Americas  2222 Ponce de Leon Blvd  Miami  FL 

 

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