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.
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
Meet the six competitors pitching for $50K in funding in HERImpact’s return to Kansas City
Editor’s note: 1863 Ventures is an advertiser with Startland News, though this report was produced independently by the nonprofit newsroom. The competition slate is set, as a half-dozen of Kansas City’s most promising emerging social entrepreneurs prepare to pitch for $50,000 in a public, shark-tank-style event for women founders. The live pitch event is set…
Web3 startup led by one of KC’s best-known exited founders redeems $2.5M pre-seed round
Redeem, a blockchain agnostic connectivity layer for Web3 that leverages phone numbers to send, receive and redeem utility NFTs, announced Wednesday its $2.5 million pre-seed funding round ahead of its launch, led by veteran blockchain investor Kenetic. The round also includes local venture firms Flyover Capital and KCRise Fund. Funding is expected to be used…
Only one side of the tracks: Omni Circle opens entrepreneurs ‘space to become or build their personal freedom’
Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to Go Topeka, which seeks economic success for all companies and citizens across Shawnee County through implementation of an aggressive economic development strategy that capitalizes…
How Kansas City’s new airport terminal became a sprawling art gallery for 28 diverse creatives
Every major milestone in Kathy Minhsin Liao’s life has been marked by travel, she shared, making airports synonymous with transition. “My [art]work at the new terminal is called ‘Hello and Goodbye,’ and it touches on my personal experience of the fluidity of travel. When you’re at the airport, you’re in that limbo space of thinking…