KC Digital Drive: Kansas City companies win 3 of 21 gigabit app awards so far

Two Kansas City startups each recently earned $10,000 awards through a program promoting gigabit app development in the metro. A third firm won previously.

OnTimeSocial and PlanIT Impact were among 11 companies honored this spring by US Ignite, which seeks to leverage networking technologies to build stronger smart communities. In Kansas City, US Ignite and its Smart Gigabit Communities grants are managed by KC Digital Drive.

“Leaders in each of our Smart Gigabit Communities worked with development teams to identify the most promising gigabit applications in their regions,” US Ignite said in a press release.

Technology from OnTimeSocial provides a framework to unify data streams generated by smart devices into a social framework for improved community engagement and remote user interaction. PlanIT Impact is an architectural planning service that streams in big data to provide a dynamic city planning platform to decrease cost and improve environmental efficiency in urban construction.

Both companies — along with past KC-based $10,000 awardee Gigabots — have been active with US Ignite for years, said Aaron Deacon, managing director of KC Digital Drive. The trio are among 21 gigabit app award winners so far, he said.

“PlanIT Impact was actually one of our first projects,” Deacon said. “We put a team together in advance of our first gigabit hackathon in 2013. It has continued to get funding through sources we’ve brought to town or cultivated.”

Between US Ignite programs and the Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund, the startup has been awarded around $100,000, he added. PlanIT Impact additionally was a 2017 Launch KC winner, earning a $50,000 prize.

Led by Jonathan Wagner, Gigabots also has been funded by Mozilla — through multiple rounds and in multiple cities, he said.