Funding Stories

Voting with cash: Meet the 8 Kansas City tech startups competing in the Pure Pitch Rally

The landsharks are circling and eight hungry tech founders are ready to sell their ideas at the fourth annual, invite-only Pure Pitch Rally, the early-stage funding platform announced Wednesday.  “In Kansas City, we have the business soul and hunger to help others — through both community crowdsourced giving and offering others a stepping stone to…

Hiroshi Nerima, Nabtesco Technology Ventures; Barbara Burger, Chevron Technology Ventures; Jeff Kostos, Spear Power Systems; and Gina Domanig, Emerald Technology Ventures

Global, KC investors charge Grandview-based battery innovator with 8-figure funding round

A Grandview-based leader in battery technology is building a charge for expansion as Spear Power Systems announced this week an eight-figure funding round with world-spanning reach and headline-grabbing international investors. “We are pleased with the quality and synergy of the syndicate,” said Jeff Kostos, president and CEO of Spear. “This investment enables Spear to scale…

Nick Bowden, Replica

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

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…

Mike Plunkett and John Thomson, PayIt

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

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,”…

Bungii

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

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…