Miami is famous for beach parties, gators that wander onto golf courses and iguanas that tumble out of palm trees.

But now the city of "Scarface" and "Miami Vice" is vying to become a new powerhouse of tech startups that some in the business hope will spawn a novel phenomenon.

The "iguanacorn" is meant to represent the tropical answer to the Silicon Valley "unicorns," start-ups that are worth more than $1 billion.

While still lagging behind San Francisco and New York, the Florida city is trying to position itself as a tech hub, and already has its first "unicorns" under its belt. They include ParkJockey, which has disrupted the car parking sector, and Magic Leap, which takes users into the world of augmented reality.

Looking to surf the Florida tech wave, so-called startup accelerators - firms that invest in fledgling tech ventures and speed up their early development - are starting to pop up in southern Florida.