Kansas City gigabit projects can snag up to $25K from Mozilla
January 26, 2016 | Bobby Burch
The Mozilla Foundation is planning to empower Kansas City techies to improve their city.
The foundation — along with the National Science Foundation and US Ignite — announced Monday that it’s allocating $300,000 to civically-minded, gigabit pilot projects in Kansas City and Chattanooga, TN.
The Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund is now accepting applications from techies and educators in both cities to submit ideas. Applicants can be local companies, non-profits or other institutions interested in tapping Kansas City’ gigabit speeds to improve education and workforce development.
If selected, projects can receive funding between $5,000 and $25,000, in addition to ongoing support and mentoring from Mozilla. The projects must take place in Kansas City, but applicants can come from around the world.
To date, the Fund has supported the development of 17 pilot projects in Kansas City and Chattanooga. Past projects include improved first-responder equipment, a real-time water quality monitoring system and singing robots.
While limited in funding size, the fund has had a positive effect on the local community, Mozilla Gigabit City Lead Lindsey Frost said.
“From relatively small grants have come huge impacts, as these projects continue as yearlong courses in our schools or even as full-fledged gigabit tech startups,” Frost said in a release.
Featured Business
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KC firm invests $56M in LGTB+ owned 10KC to reimagine a more inclusive workplace (that employees won’t want to leave)
A funding infusion from a leading Kansas City venture capital firm comes at a critical time as employees struggle to connect in a hybrid work world, said Ten Thousand Coffees (10KC), announcing its first institutional raise since the company’s 2014 formation in Toronto. Originally bootstrapped, 10KC will use the $56 million investment from Five Elms…
Boulevard, Vine Street hop to ‘inspire our city’ with a brew in honor of KC baseball icon Buck O’Neil
A new ale crafted in collaboration between one of Kansas City’s biggest brands and the city’s first Black-owned brewery is expected to commemorate “a true American treasure,” said Kemet Coleman — as well as send 100 percent of its proceeds to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The Buck O’Neil Barrel-Aged Saison honors the late first…
Mid x Midwest aims to connect 50 VCs with 50 startups; why this new meetup is coming to KC
Traveling throughout the U.S. for business, Dan Kerr regularly comes across investors who have heard rumblings about the burgeoning Kansas City tech startup ecosystem, he said. But one problem persists: most of these potential funders have never stepped foot in Kansas City. “Really what got my gears turning is that I have a big network…
Just funded: Big ‘Pure Pitch’ winners swim with the sharks, earn thousands in cash on the spot
A winning afternoon at the Pure Pitch Rally is validation Dr. Brandy Archie’s healthtech accessibility app is providing connections people actually need, she said. “That’s the most important thing to me,” said Archie, founder of AskSAMIE. “The funds are going to a good cause, but this lets me know that this new idea that I…