After St. Joseph tech firm acquisition, Online Tech expands to KC
April 20, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
Ann Arbor-based Online Tech has acquired a St. Joseph, Mo. cloud firm, paving the way for its expansion into Kansas City.
The cloud security company announced Thursday that it purchased St. Joseph-based Echo Cloud, which provides colocation and cloud hosting services.
Echo Cloud CEO Bill Severn said he’s pleased to be joining the Online Tech team.
“I believe the values we hold match Online Tech’s very well, and I think this will be a great partnership moving forward,” Severn said in a release. “Online Tech has been a leader in compliance for many years,I’m pleased we can now offer HIPAA- or PCI-compliant data hosting to our existing customers here in Kansas City.”
Allowing for easier service management, Severn added that the companies will combine their existing services into Online Tech’s client platform. Wanting to tap the Kansas City market, Online Tech was interested in Echo Cloud for its ability to grow in the Midwest.
With offices in Michigan and Indiana, CEO of Online Tech CEO Yan Ness is excited to expand the firm’s product line.
“I’m very pleased with this deal,” Ness said in a release. “We really like the Kansas City market. There’s lots of demand that we think is underserved, and this is a great opportunity to provide companies in the area with our secure, compliant hybrid IT services.”
Severn, who declined to disclose the amount of the acquisition, will no longer serve as CEO for Echo Cloud, but will stay on the board of directors for Online Tech. The firm will maintain its offices in St. Joseph, Mo.

2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Behind the blooom deal: How Morgan Stanley at Work boosted its robo-advising tech with startup buy, but kept a human touch
Editor’s note: Morgan Stanley is a financial supporter of Startland News. The investment management and financial services company has branches in Leawood and on the Country Club Plaza. Acquisition is scaling blooom’s tech ‘beyond our wildest dreams’ Integrating a Kansas City startup’s tech into its globe-spanning robo-advising portfolio — along with securing a soft landing…
From abandoned artifact to new Negro Leagues’ space: Why renovated Paseo YMCA now bears the name ‘Buck O’Neil’
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s redevelopment of the old Paseo YMCA is nearly complete, according to NLBM President Bob Kendrick, who said the renovated building will help the museum share the history of the Negro Leagues with generations to come. Set to open in late spring or early summer, the Buck O’Neil Education and Research…
Royals say tailgating, plenty of parking planned for year-round downtown ballpark district
As the Kansas City Royals deepen their efforts to bring baseball to downtown, the club aims to call up features fans love most — along with attributes from other ballparks and entertainment districts they don’t yet know they’ve been missing, executives said Tuesday. “We’re committed to creating a truly transformational, world-class ballpark district, one that…
