Investors Stories

Josh Oeding, Accelerate Venture Partners

Startup Road Trip: Venture, innovation scenes rapidly growing in Kansas City’s ‘backyard’

Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. WICHITA…

Keith Harrington and Carlos Antequera, Novel Growth Partners

Novel Growth announces new $12M+ fund, expansion to Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis

An oversubscribed first fund for Novel Growth Partners will help the Kansas City-based financing firm expand its tech investments in Chicago, Indianapolis and St. Louis. With more than $12 million banked for the fund, Novel is poised to use its unique revenue-based financing model to focus on boosting B2B software startups, the firm said in…

ADOBO

Venture deal rooted in Kauffman Fellows aligns Novel Growth, Flyover Capital behind Wisconsin urban tech startup

Two funds are better than one, Carlos Antequera said, announcing a one-of-a-kind partnership between top venture firms with Kauffman Fellows roots.  “Since our inception, our mission has been to provide innovative growth capital options for technology entrepreneurs,” Antequera, co-founder of Novel Growth Partners, said of the Mission, Kansas, revenue-based financing firm’s collaboration with Overland Park-based…

Is KC getting lapped? Kansas City scores No. 13 among Top 25 Midwestern cities in M25 ranking

Kansas City is maintaining a spot firmly in the middle of the pack among the top 25 Midwestern startup cities — in large part thanks to a $100-plus million growth equity investment in PayIt earlier this year, according to a new ranking by M25. The mega-round for Kansas City’s leading GovTech startup kept the City…

Jeff Jones, H&R Block

H&R Block’s $2M investment in KCRise Fund: Corporate engagement can’t stop with one check, CEO says

Entrepreneurial energy surrounding such startups as Bungii and PayIt made a $2 million investment in the KCRise Fund an easy choice for Jeff Jones and his team at H&R Block, the high-profile CEO said.  “When we think about the different pillars of how we want to give back to the community, taking a stake in…