Funding
Investors deal BacklotCars $8M; KC-based startup hitting the gas on disruption
Disrupting the used car space has driven a Series A funding round to $8 million for Kansas City-based startup BacklotCars, the company announced Tuesday. “This investment comes at a great time. We are growing rapidly in our existing markets and expanding our national footprint. We expect to continue to add new features – to accompany…
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…
Social entrepreneur’s Harris Park brings green and golf to blighted urban neighborhood
A clean green park with an award-winning golf course not only raises the profile of the Ivanhoe neighborhood at 40th and Wayne — it changes the mindset of those who live there, said Chris Harris. The space — completed in August— was chosen by the American Society of Golf Course Architects for its Design Excellence…
Curb appeal attracts investors to $850K round for real estate tech firm RealQuantum
A year of steady growth will help Kansas City real estate tech firm RealQuantum end 2018 with the close of its first round of seed funding — securing $850,000 in investments, revealed Mark Davis. “We closed a couple of times actually — people just kept showing up at the last minute wanting in,” Davis, RealQuantum’s…
Battery Tour energizes Sunshine Boxes with global vision to power developing economies through music
AY Young’s recent Battery Tour generated enough money to send two of 17° 73° Innovation Co’s Sunshine Boxes to Haiti — the first step in a partnership between the two ventures with common goals, the energetic founder said. “[We] just realized that we were trying to kind of do the same thing as far as…
