Million-dollar prize: Meet 10 KC companies vying for Startup World Cup, attention of global investors

KCSourceLink on Wednesday revealed the 10 companies advancing to the Startup World Cup’s Kansas City regional tournament, where selected entrepreneurs will compete for a chance to represent the region at a Silicon Valley grand finale event later this month — and a shot at the global pitch event’s $1 million investment prize.

“This competition helps put Kansas City entrepreneurs on the map nationwide,” said Adam Larson, senior program coordinator for KCSourceLink, which is organizing the local leg of the tournament in partnership with Pegasus Tech Ventures, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that coordinates Startup World Cup globally. “It’s an exciting opportunity and we are proud to be a part of it.”

The Startup World Cup is the largest startup conference and pitch competition, drawing champion teams from more than 100 regions worldwide to compete for the grand prize.

“Through this partnership, we aim to create meaningful opportunities for local startups and connect them more closely with the global innovation ecosystem,” said Anis Uzzaman, chairman of Startup World Cup, as well as founder and CEO of Pegasus.

Selected Kansas City companies will take the stage Sept. 22 at CPKC Stadium, each delivering a four-minute pitch before a panel of judges and a live audience, giving founders the opportunity to showcase their ventures in front of investors, ecosystem leaders and supporters.

Click here for tickets to the Sept. 22 competition.

After presentations conclude, judges will score each company using official Startup World Cup criteria and deliberate to select the Kansas City Regional Tournament winner, who will be announced live at the event, awarded the regional tournament trophy, and earn the opportunity to represent Kansas City at the Nov. 6 Grand Finale in San Francisco.

Kansas City’s competitors include:

• AcuSera, Zaydan Ahmed
• AskSAMIE, Brandy Archie
• Catalyst, Melissa Footlick
• CodeAlgo, Triumfia Houmbie Fulks
• Enhance Health, Matthew Leming
• KaBloom, Erin Minoski
• Love Lifesciences, Nick Love
• MedCurate, Ashley McClellan
• Planetary Talent, Jacob Schlittenhardt
• Tolair, Chad Brausen

The Startup World Cup initiative addresses access to growth capital — one of the clearest gaps identified by Forging the Future, the coordinated regional effort KCSourceLink leads to strengthen Kansas City’s entrepreneur ecosystem, Larson said.

By putting local founders directly in front of global investors and a $1 million investment prize, the Kansas City tournament gives Kansas City companies a high-visibility shot at the kind of capital connections that are hardest for early-stage businesses to find close to home, he emphasized.

“This tournament is one more way we’re driving Forging the Future forward by convening organizations, aligning priorities around the region’s clearest gaps, and mobilizing Action Teams that turn shared problems into shared, funded solutions,” Larson said.

Support for Kansas City’s regional tournament include sponsorships from Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Missouri Technology Corporation, Keystone Innovation District, Digital Sandbox KC (Technology Venture Studio), KU Innovation Park, LaunchKC, eGrowth Ventures (Network Kansas), and KC Digital Drive.