Funding Stories

Entrepreneurial card game Idea Jab spurs creativity in students, startups

Editor’s note: Startland News is continuing its Fund Me, KC segment to highlight area entrepreneurs’ efforts to accelerate their businesses. This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs — like Idea Jab co-founders  Matt Callegari and Alex Laughlin — to share their stories to gain a little help from their supporters. Back Idea Jab here. Who are…

Ag venture group TechAccel invests $250K in research partnership

A new partnership will advance agricultural innovation in the state of Missouri. TechAccel, a Kansas City-based technology and venture development firm, recently announced it will work with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, a St. Louis-based nonprofit research institute. TechAccel will provide $250,000 in grants to the Danforth Center to help it demonstrate proof of…

Sock 101 ‘makes it work’ on Project Runway, secures $250K

Apparently, Kansas City socks have significant upside with investors. After an appearance on Lifetime’s “Project Runway: Fashion Start-up,” Kansas City-based Sock 101 recently landed $250,000 from two prominent fashionistas. Designer Rebecca Minkoff and Gary Wassner, co-founder of Interluxe Holdings, a venture capital group focusing on fashion and luxury brands, both invested in the sock startup….

Mycroft AI

Montgomery: How to support KC startups with your IRA and 401(k)

Mycroft co-founder Joshua Montgomery recently appealed to the 1 Million Cups community to launch Initiative Six to foster more early-stage investment in Kansas City. The opinions in the commentary are the author’s alone. I recently read yet another article lamenting the lack of investment by Silicon Valley in the Midwest. The author stated how great…

Idle Smart earns $125K in national clean energy program

Idle Smart recently was dubbed a top clean-energy firm and won some substantial investment capital for its technology. Based in Kansas City, Kan., the company was voted by its peers as the top firm in the Energy: US 2016 program, nabbing $125,000 for its smart thermostat device for fleet vehicles, such as semi-trucks. The company’s…