Kauffman Foundation dishes $840K to 8 area accelerators
May 30, 2017 | Bobby Burch
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is hitting the gas on its support of area accelerator programs.
As part of the 2016 KC Accelerator Challenge, the Kauffman Foundation announced Tuesday that it’s awarded a total of $840,000 in grants to eight local venture accelerator programs.
“Our goal is to increase entrepreneurial success in Kansas City through high-quality support programs because we know from recent research that more startups lead to higher productivity, wage growth and quality of life for the entire community,” Kauffman Foundation CEO Wendy Guillies said in a release. “We believe the startups are empowered when they connect to established resources. The KC Accelerator Challenge directly supports organizations that are demonstrably increasing early-stage entrepreneurs’ success and accelerating business through growth.”
The foundation’s accelerator challenge aims to cultivate the area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through accelerators that provide mentoring, access to resources and other services helping entrepreneurs scale their companies. Grant recipients are required to meet a funding match of Kauffman Foundation funds.
Victor Hwang, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, said that accelerators are key to a vibrant entrepreneurial community.
“Kansas City has many of the ingredients for a strong ecosystem for entrepreneurs,” Hwang said in a release. “The KC Accelerator Challenge is part of the Kauffman Foundation’s comprehensive approach to address barriers that too many of our entrepreneurs face in Kansas City and the Midwest.”
Area accelerator organizations receiving grants and sponsorships are:
- BetaBlox
- Enterprise Center of Johnson County’s Investment Bootcamp
- Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program’s Amp Up
- Sprint Accelerator
- Techstars Kansas City
- Project United Knowledge
- Rightfully Sewn
- ScaleUp! Kansas City
The challenge is part of the Kauffman Foundation’s Zero Barriers movement, which is a national campaign to address barriers that entrepreneurs face. Another program within Zero Barriers is Inclusion Open, a grant program that aims to enable champions of underrepresented entrepreneurs to expand their services to topple barriers.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KC Digital Drive summits aim to catalyze engagement with tech, innovation
Area non-profit, government and tech leaders are planning to help broaden community involvement in the Kansas City metro’s innovation ecosystem. Organized by KC Digital Drive, the Gigabit City Summit: Local Edition — set for June 16 at Plexpod Westport Commons — will offer an immersive look into high-profile initiatives such as the Smart City effort and…
KC startups join Techstars, Amazon and Kickstarter to support net neutrality
Amazon, Kickstarter, Etsy, Mozilla and other tech giants are planning a “day of action” on July 12 to oppose efforts to undo net neutrality regulations by Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai. As national momentum grows, the fight for a free and open Internet already has garnered local support. More than a dozen Kansas City-area…
Flyover Capital leads $1.5M round in Illinois startup
Overland Park-based venture capital firm Flyover Capital has led a $1.5 million Series A round in an Illinois-based tech firm. Flyover led the investment round — which included Serra Ventures and other private investors — in Inprentus Precision Optics, which designs and manufactures X-ray and EUV diffraction gratings for “synchrotron radiation” facilities. The technology is used…
Faster-than-expected visa process helps BLITAB relocate from Austria to KC
Eight months after the Austria-based firm BLITAB won a LaunchKC grant, its co-founders have finally settled into their new home of Kansas City, Mo. BLITAB — a startup that developed the world’s first tablet for blind people — was the only internationally-based firm to win a $50,000 LaunchKC grant in September. But before co-founders Kristina Tsvetanova and Slavi…