And then there were 20. Out of over 400 tech startups from across the globe who applied, 20 have been selected as finalists to vie for a piece of $500,000 in funding from LaunchKC. Of the 20, 11 are Kansas City-based, seven are from across the United States and this year there are also two international startups from Portugal and Austria.
It’s been no easy feat to narrow the field down to just 20. According to Startland News, a panel of judges combed through the 400 applicants on Monday night. Drew Solomon, vice president of business and job development at the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City said, “It was a very difficult field for the judges to select from. It’s a very competitive landscape both in Kansas City and around the rest of the country and world. Also, there are 40 to 50 companies who absolutely could have been a finalist. It really is humbling to try and make these decisions. I wish we could fund 50 of them with a grant.”
According to KCUR,the 20 finalists will take the stage on Sept. 16, 2016, during a presentation at Techweek to pitch their companies to a panel of judges, who will then announce the 10 winning startups later in the day. The 10 winners will each receive a grant of $50,000, one year of free office space in Kansas City, as well as business consulting.
According to Startland News, the 20 finalists for the Launch KC grants are:
- Aces Health (Bentonville, Ark.) – Health Tech
- ConsultUS (Prairie Village, Kan.) – Ag Tech
- Backstitch – (Detroit, Mich./Kansas City, Mo./Sprint Accelerator) – Cloud Services
- Big Bang – (Kansas City, Mo.) – Cloud Services
- BLITAB – (Austria) – Education Tech
- EnduraLock – (Overland Park, Kan.) – Other
- Eyes on Freight – (Kansas City, Mo.) – Logistics
- Glober – (San Francisco, Calif.) – Mobile Tech
- Fitness Technology – (Kansas City, Mo.) – Health Tech
- Forest Devices – Alpha Stroke (Pittsburgh, Pa.) – Health Tech
- Herd Scout – (Overland Park, Kan.) – Ag Tech
- iShare Medical Records – (Kansas City, Mo.) – Health Tech
- Magnomics – (Portugal) – Ag Tech
- MailControl – (Chicago, Ill.) – Cloud Services
- Mobility Designed – (Prairie Village, Kan.) – Other
- Mycroft AI – (Lawrence, Kan./Sprint Accelerator) – Artificial Intelligence
- NeuroCognetix – (Columbus, Ohio) – Health Tech
- Ombitron – (Seattle, Wash.) – Internet of Things
- PerfectCube – (Lenexa, Kan.) – Data Analytics
- Super Dispatch – (Kansas City, Kan./Sprint Accelerator) – Mobile Tech
