2017 Under the Radar: TradeLanes eyes Midwestern Ag as future clients
August 29, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
Editor’s note: Startland News picked 10 early-stage firms to spotlight for its annual Under the Radar startups list. The following is one of 2017’s companies. To view the full list, click here.
[divide]
A recent graduate of the 2017 Sprint Accelerator program, TradeLanes is a newbie in Kansas City and showing significant movement.
The TradeLanes platform automates global trade focused on agriculture firms, lowering costs and removing days from the supply chain. To date, more than 90,000 cargo units have been shipped using the platform, said co-founder Vijay Harrell.
Digitizing documents, tracking shipments, notifying shippers of supply status, online bookings and detailed reports, the TradeLanes platform aims to make trade more efficient, Harrell said.
Thanks to its participation in the Sprint Accelerator, Trade Lanes (formerly of Miami, Florida) developed a beneficial working relationship with Kansas City-based Dairy Farmers of America. Harrell said the firm hopes to continue a partnership with the Ag giant, as well as other Kansas City area corporations.
The Sprint Accelerator is the third accelerator program for TradeLanes, since the firm launched in 2015. It also participated in the FedEx Logistics Accelerator and Venture Hive Miami.
Following the Sprint Accelerator program, Harrell has made a Kansas City hire and plans to open an office in the Crossroads this fall. Harrell believes that Kansas City is the best place for the firm to do business thanks to its central location and abundance of potential corporate partners
TradeLanes is in the middle of raising a seed round, which has yet to be announced publicly. Harrell is excited to focus on snagging as many Kansas City-area customers as possible, he said.
Featured Business
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KC’s ‘Horn Doctor’ handcrafts jazz preservation, keeping soul, tradition alive on Vine Street
Across the historic intersection at Kansas City’s 12th and Vine streets, B.A.C. Musical Instruments operates as one of the few remaining American factories handcrafting professional brass instruments. “This is where all the musicians would hang out back in the day,” said founder Mike “Horn Doctor” Corrigan, gesturing toward the Paseo sunken garden beside his shop.…
Autotech startup revs after patent stall; signature tech removes emissions, waste from diesel logistics
Fresh fuel is pumping into NORDEF after the Kansas City autotech company finally received patent approval for its signature product, co-founder William Walls said, pushing the pedal on its mission to disrupt the automotive fluid industry. Four years after applying for a provisional patent for its technology to produce diesel exhaust fluid on-demand — and…
rOOTS KC grows into third location, planting shop in River Market ahead of World Cup
Initially setting its roots as a pop-up plant shop in 2020, Dee Ferguson’s leafy business has grown to three Kansas City locations. The secret is in the soil, she said, describing a strategy for cultivating customers through free, evergreen plant care support and “community-rooted spirit.” [pullquote] The name rOOTS comes from Dee Ferguson’s surname: Oots.…
Summer funding pushes CarePilot to team hires, AI accolades, healthtech product launch
Fresh off its summer capital infusion, a Kansas City-built AI startup that helps doctors focus on patients instead of administrative tasks is earning industry recognition and dropping another new product, said Joseph Tutera, sharing credit for the milestones with behind-the-scenes talent. “We have a young team and they don’t have the encumbrance of a prior…