Bellwethr grows $2.5M in seed funding, building two-city talent base between KC, Manhattan
June 12, 2019 | Austin Barnes
A $2.5 million seed funding round will infuse Bellwethr with more than cash, said Matt Moody.
“We’ve been able to find some high quality talent and the big thing now is to apply that, build out the product more and start selling even faster,” Moody, founder and CEO, said of Bellwethr’s alignment for rapid growth.
Bellwethr’s elevator pitch: Software firm using artificial intelligence and machine learning to eliminate the need for technical expertise in web development and the inevitable site adjustments that have to be made to tailor to customers.
Previously, Bellwethr had amassed $120,000 in funding, Moody revealed at the time the company was named one of Startland’s 2019 Kansas City Startups to Watch.
Click here to find out where Bellwethr ranks on the annual Startland list.
The seed round was led by Royal Street Ventures, a Utah-based venture capital firm with a heavy Kansas City presence, Moody noted.
Other noteworthy investors include KCRise Fund, Techstars — the accelerator program Bellwethr successfully completed in 2018 — and angel investor Beth Ellyn McClendon, along with Karen and Paul Fenaroli, through the Minerva Fund, Moody said.
Moving beyond the raise, Bellwethr will work to build out its engineering and sales teams, while developing new products, Moody said.
Among such products and services is Retention Engine — a service designed to handle the cancelation of consumer accounts or subscriptions and work to solve problems while offering solutions that help companies avoid subscriptions, the company outlined in a release.
Matt Moody, Bellwethr
Much of the Bellwethr’s current engineering talent has joined the company — dually located in Manhattan and Kansas City — from K-State, Moody explained.
“It seems like the trend is, you know, after graduation to head towards Kansas City,” said Moody, who hails from the neighboring city of Wamego. “It’s a nice thing for us to be able to kind of handle the two. We can have people start with us and then if they decide they want to move, we’ve got the team in Kansas City as well.”
Mounting momentum, Moody said the injection has greatly impacted Bellwethr’s ability to onboard two VFA fellows in 2019.
Click here to read more about the VFA fellows set to join Kansas City companies over the summer.
“We closed on some of the money earlier in May and so we started hiring. We surprisingly had a lot of talent coming in even before the VFA process opened up,” he said. “They have their masters, experience in machine learning. We’ve been able to find some high quality talent!”
Bellwether has doubled its revenue since graduating the Techstars program in 2018, Moody said, noting that he expects the company to maintain upward momentum.
Featured Business
2019 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Artist incubator paints scene of blissful collaboration in far-from-lonely West Bottoms space
Vanessa Lacy’s artist incubator eliminates “the lonely artist,” she said, noting her gallery model replaces solitude with creative relationships and a collaborative community. “Artists tend to get very isolated in their studio spaces working on their own; then they have a relationship with a gallery that’s really more of a business relationship,” said Lacy, owner…
Order here: Menufy online restaurant platform delivers results, food from OP startup
Servicing the online orders of more than 300 restaurants in the Kansas City metro, Overland Park-based Menufy is scaling its platform across the U.S., while maintaining a startup mindset, said Ashishh Desai. “Even though now we have over 4,000 restaurants nationwide — every state but Vermont and in 1,200 cities — we still have that…
Take the Kauffman survey: Is KC’s startup culture welcoming and inclusive to all?
Perception shapes reality, said organizers of a survey that seeks greater understanding of Kansas City’s startup culture. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s 2018 Entrepreneurship in Kansas City survey checks the pulse of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem by raising specific questions about culture and practice in workplaces across the metro, said John Quinterno and Julie Marks,…
Onward scores $1M grant from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for payday loan end-run
Everyone needs a financial cushion, said Ronnie Washington — even a fintech startup offering low- to moderate-income workers a path to avoid predatory lending practices, the Onward founder said. A member of KC-based Fountain City Fintech’s inaugural cohort, Onward is one of 10 companies from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico being awarded $1 million…