Catching up with Miami-based Kind Designs & AmePower

With an expanding team and new trademarks, we catch up with two companies whose innovations help tackle the climate crisis in our new series “Where are they now?”

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Revisit our On Site video features of Miami-based Kind Designs and AmePower to see how their innovations are preparing for a sustainable future.

It has been less than eight months since we visited the small marine construction warehouse of Kind Designs in southwest Miami-Dade County, where they were testing their first robot that would 3D print seawalls to serve as artificial reefs while helping to mitigate the impact of climate change. 

What started as a one-person and one-robot startup has grown to about a dozen employees and a three-robot fleet that can print 600 linear feet daily.

Kind Designs launched in June 2023 and closed a $5.6 million seed round for that year. By the start of 2024, they had installed the world’s first 3D-printed seawall for a private project in Miami Beach and moved into a 50,000-square-foot warehouse on the Miami River, so they could easily move the living seawall panels by barge.  

You can watch the early beginnings of Kind Designs in our On Site video feature from August 2023 here. Since our feature ran last year, Kind Designs received investments from local angel investors who saw the video and became part of the seed round. 

Founder Anya Freeman, a lawyer turned climate tech entrepreneur, told us last year that she hoped to turn her idea into a unicorn company, all while helping to save communities from the impacts of the climate crisis. Her revenue target this year is $6 million – a third of which has already been confirmed. 

“We’re extremely focused on sales right now,” Freeman recently told Opportunity Miami. “The team is ready to print, print, print.” 

Kind Designs won its first government contract with the City of Bal Harbour this year and was named both Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in North America by Fast Company & Startup of the Year by South Florida Business Journal.

FROM MARINE CONSTRUCTION TO ENERGY CONVERTERS

Last year we also visited AmePower, a small business redesigning energy converters to modernize transportation fleets and to fuel the shift to a clean energy future. CEO Luis Contreras and President Karina Doracio explained how their company has evolved over two decades – from distributing small energy components to new renewable applications.

Watch our tour of the facility here. 

The company, founded by the husband and wife duo, develops and retrofits converters from their warehouse in the northwest town of Medley.

“We typically work with clients and communities across the country, and for us to be featured in Opportunity Miami helped us to reconnect with our local community and explore the opportunities right at our doorstep,” Doracio recently told Opportunity Miami.

Last year, they were recipients of Florida’s Businesspersons of the Year award, presented by the U.S. Small Business Administration. AmePower was also awarded Siemens Mobility Diverse Supplier of the Year and recently unveiled UltraSine^TM, its new compact high-power energy converter. 

AmePower also offers tours and interactive learning sessions for students and has provided internships and other opportunities in partnership with Miami Dade College and Florida International University, among others. 

“It is very important for us to be able to provide the next generation with the knowledge and tools to be successful in supporting the technology that enables alternative and electrified energy sources, as well as supporting students in building a fulfilling career,” Contreras said. 

This is our first newsletter to feature our new “Where are they now?” series where we will circle back with the entrepreneurs, leaders, and thinkers we featured in the past. Let us know who you want to hear from next by sending us an email to next@opportunity.miami. 

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~ Suzette