Startups Stories

David Biga, Particle Space

Proptech startup closes $636K pre-seed round, building on real estate product collabs

More than a half-million dollars in pre-seed funding has a Kansas City-built proptech startup movin’ on up, bringing it a few floors closer to realizing its goal of becoming Stripe for the real estate industry.  “It feels so unreal,” David Biga, founder and CEO, told Startland News Monday in announcement of the startup’s newly-closed $636,000…

Just funded: Meet the six young startups joining Digital Sandbox KC’s summer slate 

A round of funding from Digital Sandbox KC comes at a critical time for Bryght Labs — and five other early stage companies — as the AI-enabled gaming startup advances hardware development for its wildly popular, high-tech chess board, said Elliot Wilder. “Hardware is hard enough — but 2021 has added some unique challenges,” said Wilder,…

Matt Condon and Ed Enyeart, Bardavon

Talent off the charts: Bardavon recruits another former Cerner exec to build team equipped for rapid expansion

To keep growing in the workers’ compensation industry — as well as expand into commercial healthcare and beyond — Bardavon Health Innovations needs an even stronger team at the top, said Matt Condon.  “I think Bardavon is going to be a bigger, more important company than we first anticipated,” Condon, founder and CEO of Bardavon,…

A.J. Mellott, Ronawk

Olathe biotech startup represents Kansas in MassChallenge’s 50th accelerator program

More than 3,000 startups across the world applied to the 2021 MassChallenge accelerator program with Olathe-based biotechnology lab Ronawk earning one of the 229 slots to participate, shared A.J. Mellott. “[MassChallenge] has a really good reputation for accelerating companies that are in the startup mode and growing,” said Mellott, who co-founded Ronawk in 2019 with…

Stephanie Cummings, Please Assist Me, center, winner of the 2019 HERImpact DC pitch competition; Photo by My Bella Images LLC

Ford opens door to July 29 pitch competition, $50K in prizes for women entrepreneurs

The Ford Motor Company Fund is bringing a new pitch competition — and $50,000 in prizes — to Kansas City this summer as part of its effort to boost women social entrepreneurs. Announced during the final moments of last week’s HI-HERImpact virtual entrepreneurship summit for Kansas City, the planned July 29 competition is part of a national…