UMKC Innovation Center

Photo by Tim Mossholder

100 requests in two hours: $100K resiliency fund closes applications for minority biz relief grants

Editor’s note: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a financial sponsor of Startland News. This report was produced independently by Startland News’ nonprofit newsroom. Overwhelming response to a new resiliency grant fund for minority-owned businesses hit by COVID-19 exposes a humbling reality, said Sarah Mote. Applications for the grants — funded by the Ewing Marion…

UMKC, Kauffman launch $100K resiliency grant fund for minority-owned businesses hit by COVID

Editor’s note: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a financial sponsor of Startland News. This report was produced independently by Startland News’ nonprofit newsroom. A new $100,000 fund is expected to help minority-owned Kansas City businesses — left out of initial rounds of COVID-19 relief — to build resiliency and come back stronger as the…

Erin Bopp, Lightwork DJ Mobilverse

16 winners: Micro-grant competition debuts with $30K in prizes to entrepreneurs who ‘need funds the most’

Not all early-stage entrepreneurs and small businesses qualify for federal disaster loans, prompting an even greater need for programs like the new Dare to Venture Micro-Grant Competition, according to the Urban Business Growth Initiative. “At a critical time when small businesses need funds the most, the program offered a total of $30,000 in micro-grants to…

Philip Hickman, Plabook; Nomi Smith, PMI Rate Pro; Max Schanker, SWOT; and Jerren Thornhill, The Guy Experience

Digital Sandbox KC deploys funding to four new startups as uncertainty becomes ‘new normal’

Startup leaders’ needs — and the development of their ideas — don’t stop with the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), said Jill Meyer, announcing the latest round of funding selections for Digital Sandbox KC. “We know our entrepreneurs are facing so much uncertainty in this current situation,” said Meyer, senior director of technology ventures at the UMKC…

Image courtesy of KCSourceLink

KCSourceLink’s budget clapback: Startups generated $37.6M in KCMO earnings taxes

Editor’s note: Startland News is a program of STARTLAND, an ecosystem-building organization that is among the participants in an informal coalition of entrepreneur support groups hoping to increase funding for small business support in the 2020-2021 Kansas City, Missouri, budget. This story was produced independently by Startland News’ nonprofit newsroom. Financial backing for entrepreneur support…