Missouri Tech Corp. dishes $375K to Kansas City startups

Two Kansas City startups are among a dozen firms in Missouri that have received a total of $2.1 million from the Missouri Technology Corporation.

Kansas City-based tech firms PopBookings and Moblico both nabbed matching funds — $300,000 and $75,000 respectively — from the MTC that will boost their operations.

“We are supporting Missouri’s thriving innovation community as well as attracting the talent to match,” MTC executive director Bill Anderson said in a release. “These firms are great examples of how creativity, technology and innovation can come to life and turn into a lucrative business.”

Founded in 2014, PopBookings is an event staffing tech firm whose platform enables staffing agencies to hire and manage temporary labor for specific events. In 2015, PopBookings raised $250,000 from local angel investors and few months later the startup snagged $50,000 via the LaunchKC grant competition.

Now with more than 21,000 users, PopBookings is feeling the strain of a burgeoning user base, compelling the firm to raise a round of growth capital. PopBookings CEO Erika Klotz said the company is in the midst of raising $1 million to scale efficiently and build a marketplace within its platform.

“Being in such a ripe-for-disruption market, we are in a race to scale this company as fast as possible,” Klotz said. “The MTC matching funds allow us to raise a round of growth capital easier so we can focus on growing our business rather than raising money.”

Led by CEO Pierre Barbeau, Moblico is a tech firm that creates software for mobile marketers. Founded in 2010, the firm provides a platform that helps mobile marketers communicate and disseminate information to their users in a targeted way.

The MTC’s $75,000 represents a follow-on investment in Moblico, which in 2015 raised $900,000 from the MTC and a Kansas City angel investor.

The MTC’s $2.15 million in startup investments derives from its IDEA Fund, with which the MTC has co-invested in 91 Missouri firms since 2011. Those firms have raised more than $300 million in additional capital to grow their businesses and create jobs. The other 10 companies in the 2016 cycle of MTC IDEA funding hail from St. Louis, Columbia and Springfield.