Investors Stories
Darcy Howe’s hustle grows, guides KCRise Fund in first year
Kansas City may not realize its good fortune with the tenacious manager of a relatively new fund that’s investing in early-stage firms. Self-described as a builder that’s competitive and impatient, Darcy Howe is weaving her years of determined leadership into the KCRise Fund, which just wrapped up its first year with $14 million in the…
Tough love: Blooom CEO Chris Costello offers advice to KC investors
Editor’s note: Chris Costello is the CEO and co-founder of Blooom, a financial tech startup based in Leawood, Kan., that recently raised a $9.15 million round. All opinions expressed in the commentary are the author’s alone. I am happy to report that Blooom is fresh off its successful Series B round of funding. The round…
Mid-America Angels invests $287K in medical firm Voxello
The Kansas City-based Mid-America Angels investment group announced that it’s backing an Iowa-based medical device company. The regional network of angel investors announced Monday that it invested $287,000 into Voxello. The company created the “noddle,” which allows hospitalized patients to communicate nonverbally. The device detects voluntary gestures — such as a tongue click, eye blink or…
Five Elms Capital leads investment round in Atlanta SaaS firm
Five Elms Capital is continuing a streak of deals to kick off 2017. The Kansas City-based venture capital firm announced Monday that it’s the lead investor in MemberClicks, a SaaS provider that helps associations, trade groups and nonprofits manage members. Five Elms — which was joined by New York-based Level Equity as lead investors —…
Firebrand Ventures joins $6.85M round in Des Moines startup
Continuing a streak of investments, Kansas City-based Firebrand Ventures joined a sizable investment in an Iowa-based payments processing startup. Firebrand joined six other venture funds in a $6.85 million funding round in Des Moines-based Dwolla, which builds applications that facilitate bank transfers, manages customers and verifies bank accounts. The round was led by Union Square…
