Just funded: Digital Health KC taps 8 KC startups for new ‘Accelerate’ project grants

A $332,750 tranche of newly announced project-based funding is designed to propel promising digital health companies toward their next critical milestones, said Dick Flanigan, emphasizing pathways from technology advancements to product validation.

Dick Flanigan, Digital Health KC, opens the Lumi Awards ceremony during Digital Health Day at The Abbott in Kansas City’s East Crossroads; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland

“It’s difficult for early-stage companies to expand their solutions into real-world settings. That’s usually where the momentum stalls,” said Flanigan, president of Digital Health KC, detailing awards from the inaugural “Digital Health KC Accelerate” initiative.

“These projects were carefully selected by our review committee to address critical friction points in product development and market entry,” he continued. “By removing these early hurdles, we aren’t just supporting eight companies, we are strengthening the entire Kansas City digital health ecosystem.”

Born from a Build to Scale (B2S) grant partnership with the University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovation Center’s Technology Venture Studio, the Accelerate program supports projects that enhance proof-of-concept. It focuses on well-defined projects such as AI integration and security compliance that require intentional and strategic support to reach the market.

Digital Health KC has selected the following eight projects for funding as their founders build and test digital health solutions:

• Archia (Gharib Gharibi) — Provides managed infrastructure that lets companies deploy AI agents across all major AI providers, including open-weight models, via a single API.
• EZBizPortal (Jonathan Gregory) — A medical device lifecycle management platform that connects hospitals and vendors to ensure maintenance compliance and regulatory tracking across the full asset lifecycle.
• Healium (Sarah Hill) — A digital health solution using virtual reality and biofeedback to help patients self-manage stress and pain in as little as four minutes.
• KaBloom (Erin Minoski) — An innovative online platform designed as a companion to pediatric speech therapy, making home programming strategies quick and effective for families.
• MedCurate (Ashley McClellan) — A dual-sided marketplace that leverages technology to connect healthcare providers directly with organizations to fill extra shifts.
• SaRA Health (Steven Coen) — A platform that improves patient outcomes via SMS-based engagement, currently serving over 110,000 patients across various orthopedic and therapy practices.
• Scout (Gonzalo Erdozain) — A veterinary software company that digitizes dental and anesthesia workflows, transforming clinical data into actionable insights for improved patient safety.
• Trially (Kyle McAllister) — An AI-driven platform that automates the end-to-end process of finding, screening, and enrolling patients into clinical trials.