Trio of Kansas City startups among Missouri’s latest equity investments; $2.4M awarded in July

Three high-profile tech startups in Kansas City each earned a portion of the $2.4 million awarded in July by the Missouri Technology Corporation, the agency announced this week

“We are thrilled to announce another set of awards to support the high-tech, high-growth startups committed to growing in Missouri,” said Jack Scatizzi, executive director of MTC. “These awards funded by the federal SSBCI program will generate additional investment and interest from private capital to our region, and they will help catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship in our region for years to come.”

Kansas City companies receiving equity investments through Missouri’s IDEA Fund include: Sailes, one of Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2023 under the leadership of founder Nick Smith; SaRA Health, a Techstars Kansas City alum led by Steven Coen; and Serviam Care Network, the latest venture from serial founder and award-winning Pipeline entrepreneur Tim Donnelly.

MTC does not publicly disclose individual funding amounts.

[Editor’s note: The Missouri Technology Corporation and Sailes are both financial supporters of Startland News.]

Missouri’s IDEA Fund Co-Investment Programs, and specifically its Venture Capital Program — coordinated by MTC — are largely funded for the next seven years through the $95 million in federal funding from State Small Business Credit Initiative Program (SSBCI) that was recently allocated to Missouri.

RELATED: Federal funds will power Missouri investments for years; here’s how your startup can apply

Click here to read more about the SSBCI award — an outgrowth of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan that aims to boost startup and small business growth with a focus on traditionally underserved communities as they emerge from the pandemic. 

The full list of equity investments announced for July includes:

• Caeli Vascular, Inc., Chesterfield, Missouri — Founded by a group of physician and medical technology industry experts to effectively address the significant unmet clinical and economic needs associated with the treatment of large volume deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
• CapyBio, St. Louis — Using proprietary computational tools to build superior cell-based products for regenerative medicine therapies and biomedical research. 
• Rezilient Health, St. Louis — A hybrid care delivery platform that combines telehealth with in-person care to deliver a fully-integrated primary care solution for self-funded employers, where every doctor is available at every location for every member.
• RevivBio, St. Louis — Creates novel proteins for biotech applications. Our unique ‘Pico Platform’, HT-screening microfluidics system with AI-driven protein design modeling, delivers biologically relevant, novel protein libraries 100X faster and more efficiently than the competition.  
• Sailes, Kansas City, Missouri — Developed patent-pending Artificial Intelligence (Sailebots) automating sales prospecting tasks to deliver unlimited leads and labor to sales teams.
• SaRA Health, Kansas City, Missouri — Enables physical and occupational therapy practices to deliver best-in-class outcomes for their patients through accessible solutions that strengthen the patient and provider connection while increasing reimbursement to create a more sustainable future for PT and OT professionals.
• Serviam Care Network, Kansas City, Missouri — Operates with a mission to be in service to the transformation of how America cares for seniors by creating technology, network services, and coordinated care that enable better health and quality of life outcomes at lower costs for seniors and senior living operators.
• Whistle Systems, St. Louis — Market leading, SaaS platform helping companies improve employee loyalty resulting in higher retention and productivity – this is accomplished through a unique integration of reward, learning and communication technologies needed to improve behavioral outcomes.

Over the past decade, MTC has invested nearly $47 million in more than 145 early-stage Missouri-based high-growth technology-focused companies, which have raised over $1.3 billion in additional private capital, according to the agency.

In addition to the $2.4 million funded in July, MTC recently awarded the following:

• More than $2 million in investment allocations to eight Missouri-based high-growth potential startups in January.
• More than $2.3 million in investment allocations to seven Missouri-based high-growth potential startups in April.

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MTC currently accepts IDEA Fund applications continuously and reviews applications and makes awards on a quarterly basis.

Applications for the October award cycle closed Wednesday. The deadline for the January 2024 award cycle is Nov. 15.