Startups

David Roberson, Azella

How $90K from Fountain Innovation Fund could help Azella reach 10,000 financial advisors

By Tommy Felts / October 7, 2021

David Roberson grew up watching his mother struggle with financial management, he shared, noting his family’s stresses could have been alleviated with the help of a financial advisor.  Combining his passions for digital marketing, web development, SEO, design and financial literacy, Roberson founded the marketing firm Azella — named for his mother.  “Azella is a…

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Juaquan Herron, Venboo; Jill Bertelsen, Crib Coaching; Jordan Williams, Veeper; and David Roberson, Azella

These eight KC tech startups are circling Pure Pitch Rally with up to $1M on the line

By Tommy Felts / October 5, 2021

Editor’s note: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a sponsor of Startland News. As a new cohort of pitchers prepare to toss their nets toward local land sharks at this month’s Pure Pitch Rally, the addition of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation as a key financial backer elevates the annual competition for spot-cash funding and…

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KC’s PlaBook, Erkios selected for coveted $50K Arch Grants, boosting St. Louis startup scene

By Tommy Felts / October 5, 2021

Two Kansas City companies are expected to be part of Arch Grants’ largest-ever selection of startups, earning spots in the highly competitive St. Louis grant program’s 35-member, nearly $2 million 2021 cohort. PlaBook, an edtech reading platform, and Erkios Systems, a cybersecurity hardware startup, were announced Oct. 1 as winning candidates for the program, which…

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Professor Ranan Aktas, Maltepe University

Ronawk using stem cell tech developed at Olathe lab to advance liver cancer research in Turkey

By Tommy Felts / October 5, 2021

A Kansas City-based biomanufacturing startup announced its first international customer Tuesday: a university team in Istanbul that was among the first to beta test Ronawk’s lauded T-Blocks. The maker of 3D cell culture products said the collaboration with Professor Ranan Aktas and the Cancer and Stem Cell Research Center at Maltepe University in Turkey will…

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TechAccel St. Louis offices and lab space at the Bio Research Development & Growth (BRDG) Park on the campus of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

TechAccel expands in St. Louis with new facilities in ‘premier ag innovation ecosystem’

By Tommy Felts / October 4, 2021

A Kansas City-based tech and equity company investing in scientific breakthroughs to produce healthier plants, animals and foods is tapping into abundant lab space at the other end of I-70, announcing Monday new offices in St. Louis. “It’s only fitting that we locate our team in the heart of the nation’s largest concentration of plant…

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