Startups Stories

Sailes closes $5.1M investment round led by STL firm, with KCRise Fund, Wichita VC

The foundation for Sailes has always been solving difficult problems for sales teams, said Nick Smith; the success of a Series A funding round for the startup will power new tools toward that goal.  “Everyone is on this AI hype train, and we’ve been for AI for a while. But it’s not just about using…

Jabbok Schlacks, EquipmentShare

EquipmentShare completes another $150M equity raise, building on its Series E funding

COLUMBIA, Missouri — The latest tranche of funding for EquipmentShare puts mid-Missouri’s most earth-moving scaleup close to a half-billion dollars in funding announced over the past six months. EquipmentShare, a Columbia-based equipment and digital solutions provider serving the construction industry, on Wednesday announced it completed an extension of its Series E equity raise, led by funds…

Tesseract Ventures' Alert Route Lighting System illustration

Tesseract Ventures illuminates its work with US military, lighting new alert system for air force base

A new military contract showcases Tesseract Ventures’ versatility and sophistication in the national security tech space, said John Boucard, touting the Overland Park-based company’s cutting-edge Alert Route Lighting System planned for MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. “Tesseract continues its focused mission to revolutionize the way people live, work, and play by developing state-of-the-art technologies…

KC entrepreneurs tapped to team up with top-tier Kansas enterprise businesses

A trio of emerging Kansas City startups are among 20 cohort members selected to forge new strategic connections with big-name Kansas enterprise partners like Koch, Evergy, Cargill and Spirit AeroSystems. Wichita-based NXTUS this week announced the latest program participants for the NXTSTAGE Enterprise Engagement Series — a diverse array of growth-minded entrepreneurs offering innovative tech…

Mpruv Sports adds pickleball, tennis to its on-demand edtech platform, strengthens C-suite roster

Just six months after teeing off, Mpruv Sports — and its first offering, Mpruv Golf — are seeing momentum on the course and the court, shared founder and CEO Mark Lukenbill. The peer-to-peer, on-demand sports education marketplace is expanding to include tennis and pickleball, pivoting to a progressive web app, adding corporate partnerships, and growing…