IAC Media Expands Support for International Founders and FDI
The U.S.-based media and communications company will help global businesses strengthen their positioning, navigate U.S. markets, and contribute to American economic competitiveness.
MIAMI — August 2026 — IAC Media has announced a strategic focus on supporting international founders and companies pursuing business expansion and foreign direct investment opportunities in the United States.
Through market intelligence, strategic communications, brand positioning, digital infrastructure, and cross-cultural guidance, IAC Media will help international businesses better understand U.S. audiences, articulate their value, and establish a credible presence within the markets and communities they seek to enter.
The initiative advances IAC Media’s broader commitment to strengthening U.S. global competitiveness by helping qualified international businesses translate their ideas, expertise, technology, and investment ambitions into market-ready U.S. strategies.
“Global competitiveness is not an abstract national objective,” said Ivy Arias, Founder of IAC Media. “It is built through thousands of individual decisions—where companies invest, which markets they enter, whom they employ, and whether they can successfully connect with the institutions and communities around them. We want to help promising international founders approach the United States with greater clarity, preparation, and cultural understanding.”
Communications Infrastructure for Market Entry
Entering the United States requires more than incorporating a business or introducing a product. International founders must understand a complex and highly competitive market, define their value in terms that resonate with U.S. audiences, build institutional credibility, and communicate effectively across cultural and commercial contexts.
IAC Media will concentrate on that critical communications and market-readiness layer.
Support may include:
U.S. market research and business intelligence
Market-entry positioning and communications strategy
Brand development and visual identity
Messaging localization and cross-cultural communications
Website and digital infrastructure
Public relations and media positioning
Leadership and founder branding
Stakeholder mapping and strategic outreach
Event, launch, and community-engagement support
Connections to relevant regional resources and professional networks
IAC Media’s role is designed to complement—not replace—the legal, financial, tax, immigration, and regulatory professionals required for U.S. market entry. When appropriate, the company will help founders recognize those needs and connect their communications strategy with the broader ecosystem supporting their expansion.
“Foreign founders are often highly accomplished in their home markets, but entering the United States requires a different language of credibility,” Arias said. “That includes more than translating words. It means understanding expectations, decision-making environments, cultural signals, competitive positioning, and the relationships required to build trust.”
Experience Supporting Founders Across Borders
IAC Media’s strategic focus builds upon Arias’s experience creating and leading programs that helped international founders and business teams understand the U.S. market, strengthen their positioning, and develop the relationships and communications infrastructure required for expansion.
Her cross-border work has supported participants from the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal, Ukraine, South Korea, Mexico, and Chile. Through these initiatives, Arias has worked at the intersection of entrepreneurship, market readiness, communications, mentorship, and regional ecosystem development.
That experience has provided direct insight into the recurring challenges international founders encounter—from adapting established business models and articulating their value for American audiences to navigating unfamiliar institutional environments and building credibility without an existing U.S. network.
“The countries and industries may differ, but many founders arrive with the same underlying challenge,” Arias said. “They have expertise, ambition, and viable ideas, but they need context. They need to understand how the U.S. market interprets value, how relationships are built, and how to translate international success into a credible American proposition.”
Foreign Investment as an American Competitiveness Strategy
Foreign direct investment plays a substantial role in the U.S. economy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, foreign investors spent $232.2 billion to acquire, establish, or expand American businesses in 2025—an increase of 49.5 percent from 2024.
The newly acquired, established, or expanded foreign-owned businesses represented 213,100 U.S. employees. California recorded the largest related employment among all states, with 37,200 employees.
For IAC Media, those figures illustrate why support for international market entry also represents an investment in American economic opportunity.
When international businesses establish and expand operations in the United States, they can bring capital, technologies, knowledge, commercial relationships, and new employment into American markets. Their success can also strengthen local supply chains, stimulate cross-sector collaboration, and connect U.S. regions with global business networks.
However, the benefits of foreign investment depend in part on how effectively entering companies understand and integrate into the markets around them.
“Welcoming investment is only the beginning,” Arias added. “For that investment to create lasting value, companies must understand the communities they enter, communicate their contribution responsibly, and develop relationships that support sustainable growth. That is where strategic and cross-cultural communications become economic infrastructure.”
Connecting Global Ambition with Regional Opportunity
IAC Media’s FDI-related work will initially draw upon the company’s relationships and experience in Southern California and South Florida—two regions shaped by international commerce, multicultural communities, entrepreneurship, and global connectivity.
The company will work with international founders, regional partners, institutions, and economic-development stakeholders to help bridge the distance between global ambition and local market realities.
Arias brings a distinctly international perspective to the initiative. A multilingual immigrant entrepreneur with more than two decades of professional experience, she has lived and worked across cultures and has supported founders, executives, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and public-sector partners.
Her work combines strategic communications with a longstanding interest in how access to knowledge, cultural understanding, and institutional relationships influence opportunity.
“I understand the ambition required to build across borders, but I also understand the gaps that can prevent a strong idea from gaining traction in a new country. IAC Media exists, in part, to help close those gaps—so international founders arrive better prepared and American communities are better positioned to benefit from what responsible global investment can bring.”
Through this strategic focus, IAC Media will contribute a communications-centered model of FDI support grounded in experience, preparation, cultural fluency, regional connection, and mutually beneficial growth.
About IAC Media
IAC Media is a U.S.-based media and marketing agency committed to expanding economic opportunity and strengthening U.S. global competitiveness. The agency partners with businesses, nonprofits, and public-sector institutions to support leaders, mentor teams, strengthen brands, and expand communities. Through strategic communications, cross-cultural fluency, and market insight, IAC Media helps its partners reach new audiences, navigate markets, and create lasting impact.
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