Tag: KCRise Fund

$16M round for health tech startup growing AI agents to perform administrative tasks

By Tommy Felts / June 21, 2023

A Seattle company with a talent hub in Kansas City announced Wednesday a $16 million seed round that includes investment from KCRise Fund and a promise to leverage conversational artificial intelligence alongside human talent to boost workplace productivity. Outbound AI emerged from stealth mode in 2022 to a market hungry for solutions, said Stead Burwell,…

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Chris Callen, Plot

PLOT digs into commercialization with $2M round, earns backing from KCRise Fund

By Tommy Felts / June 5, 2023

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to Entrepreneurial Growth Ventures (EGV), a business unit of NetWork Kansas supporting innovative, high-growth entrepreneurs in the State of Kansas. WICHITA — A Wichita-based startup…

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‘Proud capitalist’ to young social entrepreneurs: It’s OK to make a buck while saving the world

By Tommy Felts / May 3, 2023

Darcy Howe encouraged budding, would-be founders to think about ways they can effectively scale their mission-driven ideas, drawing on KCRise Fund’s model for social entrepreneurship. “Being socially mission-driven is not mutually exclusive to making money,” Howe, founder and managing director of KCRise Fund, told Enactus students gathered Tuesday during an end-of-year celebration for the University…

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Founder to founder: One day you’re eating cheap ramen, the next you’re KC’s big exit story; struggles define startups as much as success

By Tommy Felts / April 5, 2023

Even after building a startup into one of Kansas City’s biggest exit success stories, the entrepreneurs and leaders behind BacklotCars don’t sit around to talk about their grand achievements when they reunite, said Anders Ericson; they reminisce about how the tech company nearly went out of business along the way. “Everyone always wants to ask…

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Fast-growing KC startup closes $20M in Series B funding to accelerate genetic progress in cattle

By Tommy Felts / April 4, 2023

A well-muscled funding round is expected to help Lenexa-based Vytelle expand its global operations after having already scaled the agtech startup’s breakthrough in vitro fertilization, data capture, and AI-driven genetics tech to be easily accessed by more than half of the U.S. cow herd. “This is indicative of strong market interest in our products and…

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