Riley Kaminer

Miami

Writer, Researcher, and Content Strategist at Freelance

Contributor at Refresh Miami

Lead Contributing Writer at South Florida Tech Hub

Sharing impactful ideas at scale. Tech writer and content strategist. Contributor @RefreshMiami. LatAm film & food fan.

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Articles

From hacker to investigator, this cybersecurity expert built a business by thinking like a criminal

1 week ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

Before he built a company solving digital crimes, Wanderson Castilho was the one breaking into systems. It started in the late ‘90s, while he was working on his master’s in physics in Brazil. Access to academic journals was clunky, and email wasn’t reliable. So Castilho took matters into his own hands. “I used to hack my professors’ accounts just to get the articles I needed,” he told Refresh Miami. “Later I’d tell them what I did and give them their password back.”He got curious.
Pelico raises $40M to scale the next generation of supply chain AI, all from new base in Miami

1 week ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

It starts with a single late part. One delay, one glitch, one email that didn’t arrive on time, and suddenly, a billion-dollar production line grinds to a halt. That’s the problem Pelico set out to fix. And with a fresh $40 million in funding, the supply chain software company is betting it can become a key player in the AI-powered manufacturing world, with Miami as its launchpad.
Clockout secures $2M to bring earned wage access to community banks

1 week ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

Clockout has raised $2 million to accelerate its mission of bringing earned wage access to the heart of community banking. The round was led by Cofounders Capital, which contributed $1 million and will take a board seat. Other investors include Porch Ventures, One Six One Ventures, Market Square Ventures, and Launch Tennessee. “This fundraise gives us over two years of runway,” CEO and co-founder Juan Jurado-Blanco told Refresh Miami.
Payabli raises $28M to turn software companies into payments powerhouses

1 week ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

Back in 2020, Joseph Elias Phillips and William Corbera saw the writing on the wall. Software companies were becoming financial platforms. But most of them lacked the payments infrastructure to pull it off. So, they built Payabli. Five years later, that bet is paying off in a big way. This week, the Miami-based startup announced a $28 million Series B round led by Fika Ventures and QED Investors, with support from previous backers TTV Capital and Bling Capital.
Roo Capital is bringing private equity rigor to early-stage venture

2 weeks ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

In a venture market where capital alone no longer sets a firm apart, Coconut Grove-based Roo Capital is betting on a more hands-on approach. Launched in 2022 and based in Miami, the early-stage venture firm is applying a private equity-style structure to the seed stage – aiming to offer not just funding, but deep operational support.
Inside the immigrant-focused startup outpacing VC-backed rivals

2 weeks ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

Most startups will tell you they’re mission-driven. Few can back it up the way OKY can. Founded five years ago by Victor Unda and Santiago Rossi, OKY set out to build a new kind of financial platform: one designed to serve the overlooked and often misunderstood communities behind the $170 billion U.S. remittance economy. The idea was simple. Instead of sending money abroad and hoping it gets spent the way you intended, why not send something specific?
Taiv’s Noah Palansky turned barroom boredom into a $16.5M-funded business

2 weeks ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

A dull hockey game and a bar full of disengaged screens sparked something for Noah Palansky. The TVs were on, but nobody was watching. Ads looped endlessly. And no one behind the bar could be bothered to switch the channel. That moment planted the seed for what would become Taiv, a YC-backed startup that has raised $16.5 million and is now live in over 2,000 venues across North America. Palansky, Taiv’s CEO and co-founder, launched the company during the pandemic.
Guardz raises $56M to arm MSPs with enterprise-grade cybersecurity for the SMB economy

2 weeks ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

When Guardz launched out of stealth in 2023, the company didn’t go after the Fortune 500. Instead, it zeroed in on the businesses most exposed to the cybersecurity crisis, and least equipped to deal with it: small and mid-sized companies. So far, the bet has paid off. In just over two years, the Israel-founded, Miami-anchored startup has raised $84 million in funding, with the latest $56 million Series B round led by ClearSky, a West Palm Beach-based venture firm.
Rails launches with $14M to fix what FTX broke

3 weeks ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

A year ago, launching a U.S.-based crypto exchange focused on perpetual futures would’ve been a non-starter. But a lot has changed… and fast. With a new administration in Washington and shifting regulatory winds, a startup called Rails has decided the time is finally right. And they’re not playing small.
Connectd’s Roei Samuel sees the future of work coming faster than expected, and he’s building the platform to meet it

3 weeks ago | refreshmiami.com | Riley Kaminer

Just eighteen months ago, Connectd was best known for helping startups find investors. But today, the platform is growing fastest in an unexpected area: helping professionals go fractional. “We’re seeing the biggest shift since we launched,” Roei Samuel, founder and CEO of Connectd, told Refresh Miami. “More and more companies are coming to us not for capital, but for talent: fractional executives, advisors, consultants. That’s what they need now.”The numbers back him up.