Florida is famous for its endless sandy beaches (Florida has the longest coastline, 1,197 statute miles, in the contiguous United States) as well as its world renowned theme parks such as Disney, Universal, and Busch Gardens. But Florida is also gaining a reputation as a hotbed for high growth companies such as MagicLeap (Miami), who have received over $1bn in funding from investors such as Alibaba and Google.
The 2020 Florida Venture Capital Conference will be taking place in Orlando on the 30th and 31st of January. Organised via the Florida Venture Forum, this event has assisted past presenting companies in raising approximately $6 Billion in equity capital. With hundreds of top venture capital and private equity houses in attendance, it is the perfect environment for connecting start-up and growth companies with the capital sources and business services they need to grow and scale.
Foreign Direct Investment continues to be a substantive driver of the Irish economy and Ireland has benefited greatly from previous investments from the Sunshine State. Floridan companies such as Citrix Systems Inc., Marriott Vacation Club International, Hertz Global Holdings, and Opko Health Inc. have all made Ireland their European home. Ireland’s pro-business, flexible environment and availability of high quality talent has enabled many high growth companies to scale quickly and expand their international footprint. In the same way that Florida is often viewed as a gateway to the Southern US and LATAM markets, Ireland provides companies with an ideal location in which to access the European market. And with two direct flights from both Orlando and Miami to Dublin, the connection between the two regions has never been stronger.
IDA Ireland looks forward to speaking with Florida’s fast growing companies who are looking to expand into Europe and explaining why Ireland is the European investment location of choice.
For practical advice to speed up the process of setting up in Ireland check out our Playbook
For more information reach out to the Emerging Business Team who are in Florida this week:
Sean McWilliams, VP Emerging Business - sean.mcwilliams@ida.ie
Scott Cahill, Project Executive, Emerging Business – scott.cahill@ida.ie
