Palm Beach County is turning inbound talent, AI trust, and institutional growth into a serious innovation ecosystem – Refresh Miami

They came for spring break … and stayed to build companies

Acronym VC general partner Joshua B. Siegel and his family arrived in South Florida from New York City’s West Village for a simple spring break trip just as the pandemic began, but they never actually left. After swapping a cramped two-bedroom apartment for a house in Delray Beach with a pool and open space, Siegel realized the move was “a complete no brainer.”

Siegel is part of a growing wave of ambitious residents who are trading the Northeast and West Coast for Palm Beach County. These new arrivals are building durable and revenue generating businesses that are quickly transforming the local landscape.

Fixing the healthcare headache with a side of climate tech

The county is seeing a trend toward deep tech and blockchain applications that solve massive regulatory headaches. Kirk St Johns has been in the crypto space for over a decade and saw an opportunity to apply blockchain to the U.S. healthcare system. 

“We’re going from the internet to the blockchain,” St Johns told Refresh Miami. His company, Solum Global, uses smart contracts to allow for real-time adjudication of medical claims which typically take weeks or months to process. CEO Geary Stonesifer added that they are offering a fast-pay option that does not exist in the market right now. He noted that being in South Florida puts them near the public policy bubble around Mar-a-Lago, which allows them to influence national healthcare conversations.

This momentum toward heavy-hitting infrastructure includes a burgeoning climatetech ecosystem. Gaida Zirkelbach saw her West Palm Beach startup, SustainaBase, acquired by global leader ISS-Corporate after building a platform to automate complex carbon emissions reporting. 

This exit highlights the strength of the local scene, which recently secured a $19.5 million federal grant to further its growth. Beyond carbon, there is even a push into quantum infrastructure through a partnership between Florida Atlantic University and D-Wave.

Taming the digital wild west with trusted intelligence

One of the most prominent trends in the region is a move toward artificial intelligence governance and trusted data systems. 

For instance, serial entrepreneur Brad Levine decided to come out of retirement to found Synergist Technology in Boca Raton when he realized the wild west of artificial intelligence needed guardrails. 

“How are you going to put the guardrails around AI?” Levine asked, explaining that his platform helps large institutions and government agencies measure fairness and performance in their models. Levine noted that until organizations start measuring these metrics, they don’t really know what their AI is doing. He is currently focusing on state and federal agencies where compliance is not optional and he plans for a larger funding round in early 2026.

bundleIQ founder Nicholas Mohnacky is following a similar path by solving the information age limit with Alani, which is an AI-first knowledge management system that prioritizes trusted data over hallucinations. 

“People want AI powered data… they need data they can trust,” Mohnacky shared. His company recently launched Alani Connect to help users navigate high-value research from organizations such as the Milken Institute. 

The startup founder, who was the founding chairman of West Palm Beach entrepreneur community 1909, noted that Palm Beach’s tech scene has seen a transformation from a bottom-up grassroots movement to more top-down investment.

“I remember talking to [former Apple CEO] John Sculley back in 2013 or 2014 about building a startup scene in Palm Beach,” Mohnacky recalled. “He basically asked, and I’m paraphrasing here, but ‘why would you do that here?’” That’s a stark contrast from today, in Mohnacky’s view, where capital continues to flee places like New York and California and land in Palm Beach.

Building a powerhouse city with a genuine soul

The final piece of the puzzle is the massive physical and institutional build-out of West Palm Beach. Jordan Rathlev is leading the charge on this physical transformation as an Executive Vice President at Related Ross. 

He currently manages nearly a two million-square-foot operating office portfolio and a three and a half million-square-foot office development pipeline to house the steady stream of incoming firms. This physical growth is being matched by the arrival of top-tier institutions such as Vanderbilt University’s planned campus (slated to open in 2029) and Fortune 500 firm  ServiceNow. Rathlev is also deeply integrated into the local community through his service on the West Palm Beach Library Foundation and the city permitting advisory committee.

“In Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach you have great universities, great talent, access to capital on Palm Beach Island, and a strong ecosystem already established,” said Rathlev. “We really think this could be the next Silicon Valley 2.0, given those same core ingredients that were so prevalent in the Bay Area.”

“Steve Ross is in his swan song era,” asserted bundleIQ’s Mohnacky. “It’s amazing because he’s such a powerhouse, and he chose to build here.”

To sustain this energy, the region is leaning on its local connective tissue like 1909. “And every thriving ecosystem needs a strong education system,” added Mohnacky.

Innovation roots run deep in Boca and FAU

Enter Ryan Lilly, the Director of Economic Development at the Research Park at FAU, which over the last 40 years has been home to a wide range of local startups and scaleups including Blue Frontier, Honorlock, ModMed, and ShipMonk. Lilly noted that continued investment in higher education is the most critical factor for long-term success. 

“Talent is the strongest magnet for both founders and investors in any ecosystem,” Lilly said. He explained that while the ecosystem has already produced several unicorns, the next five years will require deeper connectivity between research and company formation to turn Palm Beach into a global innovation hub.

In January, D-Wave announced it will move its corporate headquarters from Palo Alto to Boca Raton and build a major U.S. research and development hub at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus. This office park is down the street from FAU and is the former headquarters of IBM, where the company developed the first personal computer. At the same time, the university signed a $20 million agreement to purchase and install one of D-Wave’s Advantage2 annealing quantum computers on its campus.

As the region builds this density, the focus is shifting toward an intentional way of life where personal and business worlds overlap in ways rarely seen in older tech hubs. 

Andrew Davis, managing partner at Edin Capital who moved to the area five years ago, noted that there is a level of energy and momentum that is hard to ignore. 

“There’s a level of energy and momentum that’s hard to ignore in the county and especially in West Palm Beach,” Davis said. He believes that if the community continues to lean into what makes the area unique, the next decade will be truly special. 

Davis continued: “We have an opportunity to capture lightning in a bottle if we get it right.”

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STAY TUNED TO REFRESH: Tomorrow we will have a deeper look at one area of Palm Beach County ecosystem’s current momentum.

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