Funding

Nick Bowden, Replica

Replica’s $11M round: Alphabet-owned urban planning tool hits the streets as KC-based spinout

By Tommy Felts / September 13, 2019

Kansas City is suddenly home to a new, heavy-hitter-backed startup with a built-in $11 million in Series A funding, Nick Bowden announced Thursday. Replica — a next-generation urban planning tool by Sidewalk Labs (itself a smart city firm owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google) — has been spun out into its own standalone…

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Mike Plunkett and John Thomson, PayIt

Payit, C2FO making biggest waves, but funding for smaller companies still jumped 81 percent

By Tommy Felts / August 28, 2019

Editor’s note: The following is the first in a series of analyses of Startland’s list of Kansas City’s Top Venture Capital-Backed Companies. Proof points matter, said John Thomson. “We’re evidence — based on the $100 million-plus growth equity investment we closed this spring — that you can build a world-class tech company in Kansas City,”…

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Bungii

$9.4M funding round steers Bungii toward ‘biggest sharing economy footprint in US’

By Tommy Felts / August 26, 2019

A $9.4 million oversubscribed Series A round isn’t just an investor vote of confidence in Bungii, said Ben Jackson. It’s a funding fuel-up as the tech startup shifts expansion plans into high gear on the road to becoming the final link in the big and bulky supply chain. “By the end of 2021, we’ll still…

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Jennifer Lapka, Rightfully Sewn, photo courtesy of Rightfully Sewn

Rightfully Sewn awarded first government grant to expand workforce development effort

By Tommy Felts / August 22, 2019

A $25,000 grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration is expected to help push Rightfully Sewn closer to its goal of community impact through seamstress training. The Crossroads-based venture — with its glimmering atelier focused on economic development via the fashion industry — was among 12 winners of the SBA’s Makerspace Training, Collaboration and Hiring…

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John Bertrand, Daupler, Techstars Kansas City 2018 Demo Day

KCRise Fund launches second fund; first investments in backstitch, Bungii, Daupler

By Tommy Felts / August 21, 2019

KCRise Fund today announced the launch of its second fund — KCRise Fund II — along with three new investments in high-growth, early-stage Kansas City tech companies. Backstitch, Bungii and Daupler are the latest startups to join the KCRise Fund family, and the first three portfolio companies for the new fund. All three are featured…

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