Founded in Israel, Vee helps nonprofits thrive with tech. It already employs 15 people in Miami and has big plans for its new base.
Israel’s ties with Miami run deep, and when it comes to startup expansion plans, the Magic City is increasingly a top contender. The latest startup to call Miami their new home is Vee, a venture-funded AI-powered platform for nonprofit organizations.
Vee’s new headquarters in Wynwood’s Gateway building now holds 15 employees including the VP of sales, who relocated to Miami in September. CEO May Piamenta is splitting her time between Tel Aviv and Miami now, but plans to move her within the next three months, she says.
Initially, Miami wasn’t seen as a contender, but “it was love at first sight,” says Piamenta, who grew up in Israel and has been involved with nonprofits since her teen years. “The people are those kind of people that we really want on board. We want people with warm hearts, with a big smile, and I think Miami is where they all are.”
Miami also met all three of Piamenta’s most-important criteria: daily nonstop service to Israel, where Vee has a big team, great weather; and a strong talent pool. “It felt like Miami has this community of people that are interested in startups and in tech. I’m very happy with our decision.” Miami-Dade County is also home to over 10,000 nonprofits.
Founded in 2020 by Piamenta and Avi Amor in Israel, Vee completed a major pivot last year. Vee was originally a marketplace for thousands of nonprofits to find their volunteers. However, Vee didn’t really solve the problem of what Piamenta calls “the circle of failure,” which often afflicts nonprofits in their early years when they run out of their initial funding just as they are learning the needs are much bigger than they thought as they are trying to scale up to meet those needs. So after a painful round of layoffs, Vee started anew on a very different path, and today Vee helps thousands of nonprofits maximize the funding they have already raised to scale their impact with the power of technology.
“Vee is basically building an AI team, we call it the team that nonprofits have been dreaming of but couldn’t afford to hire full-time,” says Piamenta. Vee’s AI-powered team members, Maggie and Grant, work alongside nonprofits to streamline social media marketing and management, grant discovery and grant writing, so non-profits can focus on what matters most – making a difference, Piamenta says.
Before relaunching, Vee conducted 300 in-person interviews with nonprofit organizations in preparation for their pivot and incorporated the learnings in their AI team members. Besides Maggie and Grant, more AI team members with other specialties are under development by Vee’s tech team in Israel.
Vee now provides the most-needed nonprofit superpowers. Maggie is an AI powered social media and marketing manager for nonprofits, and she’s specifically designed and built for every single part of nonprofit marketing and communications. “Maggie is an always-on agent, which means she thinks, she designs, and our customers are just getting it as a push – ‘Maggie finished your content.’ ‘Maggie is ready to upload.’ ‘Maggie is waiting for your feedback’.” This is something that is very niche to the nonprofit space because we know that our people are very busy,” says Piamenta.
Grant is an AI-powered always-on agent for grant research, writing and applications. Grant knows to research the entire Internet and how to match the organization with their right grants to apply for now, she adds. After he researches, he writes the applications, ready for the non-profit’s review. “We’ve seen our customers winning a lot of grants already,” Piamenta says.
Companies purchase a subscription, currently ranging from $349 to $835 monthly, based on the amount of service they need. “We’re getting a lot of inquiries from large foundations and companies that want to sponsor our tools for nonprofit organizations,” Piamenta says.
Vee’s Miami office will house Vee’s go-to-market teams, including sales, marketing, customer success, external product managers, operations, etc. The company will be hiring a growth marketing manager, account executives, and customer success team leads, Piamenta says. Vee has already expanded its Miami office space at Gateway to accommodate more hiring. The company employs 43 people globally and has raised about $19 million in venture capital, including $7 million to build its AI products.
Vee is part of a wave of Israeli-founded companies that are expanding into Miami and helping to propel the local economy. A new report by the United States-Israel Business Alliance found that statewide, 429 Israeli businesses have created 8,190 direct jobs, and two-thirds of them are located in Miami-Dade County. In Miami-Dade County alone, Israeli-founded firms account for over $6 billion in gross output accounting for nearly 3% of the county’s GDP. Wages at Israeli firms – an average salary of $72,400 – are 18% higher than the local norm, too, according to the report. Miami is home to other Israeli-founded tech companies Insightec, DoorLoop, Spinframe, Tabit, Reeco, Walz, BioBeat, and many others, as well as support organizations, such as soft-landing services, the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator and the recent Israel Tech Week.
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