Search Results: kcrise fund

Kansas city startup funding

Most-funded tech startups: $100M-plus investment puts PayIt on the map with C2FO

Companies in the Midwest and South are making major plays for investment dollars, according to CB Insights, with Kansas City’s PayIt and C2FO earning spots on the latest map of the nation’s most well-funded tech startups. “The tech boom has diffused beyond the traditional hotbeds of California, New York, and Massachusetts, across the entire United…

BacklotCars parks another $25 million in Series B round led by NY-based investor

KC-fueled BacklotCars will further its mission to disrupt the wholesale automotive space, thanks to the close of a $25 million Series B funding round, the company announced Monday. Led by New York-based growth equity firm, Stripes, the round brings BacklotCars — which seeks to ease pain points for automotive wholesalers — to $38 million in…

Darcy Howe, KCRise Fund; Lesa Mitchell, Techstars KC; Melissa Roberts, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, female entrepreneurs Kansas City

Even gatekeepers struggle to bring KC’s women-led companies in from the cold

Female entrepreneurs are falling behind as a new generation of highly-scalable startups rises in the Kansas City, said Darcy Howe, reporting too few women-led firms even approaching KCRise Fund for investment. “My experience with those ‘Hey, I hear you have money’ calls that I do get [from female entrepreneurs] — many of them are not…

startups kcmo budget

Startup advocates rally, demand KCMO invest more of its $1.73B budget in entrepreneurs

If Kansas City leaders want to build a stronger community, they should start by supporting early stage entrepreneurs, said Lesa Mitchell. “I’m simply here to say — we’re not spending enough money … and we need to look at it,” Mitchell, managing director of Techstars Kansas City, told KCMO city council members Saturday during a public…

Darcy Howe, KCRise Fund

KCultivator Q&A: Darcy Howe helps awaken a sleepy city from its safe spaces, talks rest and refueling

Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Empowering Kansas City entrepreneurs to realize their dreams is in Darcy Howe’s blood, she said with a coy smile, seated in an open meeting space atop the 24th floor of her downtown office. “Kansas City was…