Liberty-based CAPE Industries scores $1.45M round, ‘global reach with a home base feel’
March 26, 2019 | Austin Barnes
A commitment to Kansas City shouldn’t limit a company’s reach, Allen Gibson said on the heels of a million-dollar-plus funding round, successfully closed Tuesday by his startup, CAPE Industries.
“This is a global product. We have a global team [put in place] and we’ve organized from Day 1 to be a global company based in Kansas City,” Gibson, founder and CEO, said upon CAPE Industries’ announcement that it had officially closed a $1.45 million seed funding round, Tuesday — a first for the previously bootstrapped company.
A market of opportunity, Gibson founded the Liberty-based CAPE Industries — an electrical manufacturing company that works to replace traditional metal components with innovative designs and materials at a lower cost — in 2015, after noticing the space lacked disruptive qualities, he said.
Click here to further explore CAPE Industries’ disruption.
“I was [working overseas] living in the U.K., in Dubai, working as a global manager for another company and we saw an opportunity, a trend in the industry where non-metallic components we’re beginning to replace metallic and that was the first piece of market trend or opportunity that we saw,” Gibson explained. “ … [After doing our research] we found an innovation where we could put a constant for spring pat patented design into a non metallic cable gland.”
Non-metallic materials and electrical grounding hadn’t previously gone together, he added.
“CAPE’s glands are made from advanced polymers designed to withstand extreme climates and conditions,” the company said. “The price to market is roughly one-third lower than that of its equivalent metallic counterparts and one-half the weight.”
The newly closed funding round will allow CAPE to pursue prototyping of polymer recipes and final product certifications on a global scale, Gibson said.
More money also means a bigger team, Gibson added. CAPE Industries is expected to create 24 jobs over the next three years, half of which will be in Kansas City.
As CAPE Industries grows globally, maintaining Kansas City roots has always been the goal for Gibson, he said of the metro’s commitment to supporting entrepreneurs.
“That global reach with a home base feel [is what drives CAPE forward],” he said.
CAPE is expected to disrupt a growing $2.2 billion global market, Gibson added.
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