Newly awarded funds are expected to help six more companies scale their fledgling startups past the proof-of-concept stage, said Jill Meyer, touting Digital Sandbox KC’s track record of making startups and their products more fundable once they’re built.
“Digital Sandbox KC is one of the Kansas City metro’s rare early-stage funds and provides vital support to help innovations move forward and land additional funding,” said Meyer, senior director of Technology Venture Studio, which houses early-stage tech support and programs Digital Sandbox KC, Whiteboard 2 Boardroom, KCInvestED and Comeback KC Ventures. “In addition to those funds, Digital Sandbox KC helps founders make critical connections to key investors, experts who can help them clear hurdles and more tech resources in Kansas City’s entrepreneur ecosystem.”
The program announced Wednesday its third quarter round of companies set to receive up to $20,000 each in project funding from Digital Sandbox KC. Awardees range from health tech to digital solutions focused on at-home wellness, beauty tech, clinician burnout and veterinary surgery.
“Because of Digital Sandbox KC funds, we will be able to complete development of our app and launch it in the Kansas City area this fall,” said Ruth Shrauner, CEO and founder of Poshed on the Go. “We can’t wait to test our MVP, get feedback from local clients and beauty professionals, make necessary enhancements and expand into other states in 2023. We’re excited to revolutionize the beauty tech industry and introduce new ways for salon professionals to make additional income.”
Click here to read more about the origins of Poshed on the Go and the founder’s journey so far.
Funded startups include:
- Health Partners MD, Courtney Younglove, Overland Park — Health Partners MD saves employers money on their health care costs by improving the health of the workforce through a disease-management program that addresses obesity and obesity-related conditions.
- HealthyID, Laura E. Owen, Olathe — HealthyID is a life-science company that is focused on preventative health products and services. The startup’s mission is to help people move from “sick care” to “health care” through at-home wellness testing, education and innovation. In addition to providing at-home wellness testing for consumers, HealthyID helps inspire wellness through technology to drive behavior modification and improved processes for remote testing and risk-assessment services.
- MyDigiRecords, Dr. Saroj Gupta, Kansas City, Missouri — MyDigiRecords is focused on empowering people to take control of their health care by ensuring health information is always within reach. Families can stay up to date with immunizations based on CDC guidelines, manage their medications, get notified of potential medication reactions and work with their health care providers to make informed choices about their health.
- Poshed on the Go, Ruth Shrauner, Shawnee, Kansas — Poshed on the Go is a mobile app that allows clients to shop and book on-location salon or spa services with pre-qualified licensed beauty professionals, on-demand or by appointment.
- Redpoint Summit, Chuck Schneider, Kansas City, Missouri — Redpoint Summit is a health care tech company focused on reducing clinician burnout through electronic medical record personalization at scale. The startup evaluates each clinician through AI data analysis and identifies their electronic medical record usage patterns. Redpoint Summit then uses automation to build streamlined content that reduces frustration and keyboard time.
- Scout, Gonzalo Erdozain, Leawood — Scout (a DVM Solutions, LLC SaaS) aims to bring anesthetic planning and monitoring in veterinary hospitals to the cloud. It will provide an all-in-one hub for patient vitals and dental prophylactic procedure charting, allowing veterinarians to completely chart and record dental prophylactic procedures from start to finish and create a legal medical record. Scout will automatically calculate all medications for anesthesia, regional blocks and oxygen and IV fluid flow rates.
MyDigiRecords and Health Partners MD are both working on projects as fellows through Comeback KC Ventures, an EDA-funded partnership between the Technology Venture Studio (of which Digital Sandbox KC is a program) and Kansas City Digital Drive.
Click here to read more about MyDigiRecords’ recent funding infusion from within one of Kansas City’s most iconic entrepreneur families.
Digital Sandbox KC is now accepting applications for its fourth-quarter 2022 cycle and presentations. Click here for more information or to submit an idea.
Since its inception in 2013, the program has provided $3 million in proof-of-concept project funding across 176 companies (including the six just announced. Digital Sandbox KC awardees have gone on to raise nearly $200 million in follow-on funding. In fact, 33 of them have raised more than $1 million in follow-on funding, and 27 have achieved more than $1 million in sales, according to the organization’s latest report.
As part of UMKC Innovation Center’s Technology Venture Studio, Digital Sandbox KC supports early-stage startups not only with project funding, but also with panels of experts during Summer in the Sand, as well as founder roundtables, where entrepreneurs are introduced to peer networks of support; referrals to other transformation funding and programs, like Comeback KC, LaunchKC, Pure Pitch Rally, Pipeline and others; intentional connections to regional and national angels and venture capitalists for follow-on funding; and exposure to cutting-edge technologies emerging from partner research institutions in the region.
Click here to check out Digital Sandbox KC awardees from the second quarter of 2022.
