Local government has the most impact on people’s lives, said Ryley Iverson, co-founder and CEO of Townfolio, a Canada-based firm providing city data as a service that was among the 2018 Techstars Kansas City cohort.
Townfolio announced a partnership with the Kansas City Area Development Council Thursday during the accelerator’s Demo Day: fuel the international firm will use to open a Kansas City office.
“With that government focus, we’ve scaled Canada like a virus,” said Iverson, noting the company has an global focus and can be used to provide outside entrepreneurs with a window into scaling cities like Kansas City.
Another member of the cohort, SaRA Health — a recovery assistant that simplifies physical therapy — also announced a partnership with a KC-based company, Bardavon Health Innovations, a firm dedicated to revolutionizing the workers’ compensation industry.
“Through this outcome study we will prove that SaRA reduces recovery times, improves outcomes, and reduces cost,” said Steven Coen, co-founder and CEO of SaRA.
Wattbuy — an online electricity marketplace that was founded after receiving a grant from the Department of Energy —will team up with Zego, KC-based firm that promotes engagement among apartment residents to give renters new options for selecting an electricity provider.
“The whole electric brokerage and purchasing of energy universe is shady, it lacks trust and transparency, and it’s ripe for the type of solution that Wattbuy is bringing to market. […] There’s no one out there doing this so I know that there is a lot of companies, like mine, out there that will want to work with these guys,” said Adam Blake, co-founder and CEO of Zego.
Other startups in the 2018 cohort work in industries from education technology, to food and artificial intelligence, and transportation and clean water.
- Bellwethr: a Kansas City-based software firm, founded in 2016 by Matt Moody, that utilizes AI and machine learning to predict customers and employees that are at risk of leaving businesses.
- Daupler: a Kansas City-based company that created a first-response SaaS platform for city water departments.
- EdSights: a New York-based company, founded by two first-generation students from Rome, that allows universities to predict students who are at risk of dropping out and intervene.
- Smart Diagnostics Systems: a Kansas City based company that has created a reagent, hardware, and software platform to detect pathogens in food, throughout all points of the food supply chain.
- Noviqu: the SaaS firm works to digitize safety, training, and maintenance logs in the manufacturing industry.
- Qwyk: the Netherlands-based firm helps to digitize transportation and international logistics transactions.
- SaRA Health: the recovery assistant simplifies physical therapy by enabling doctors to create personalized exercises for patients and track their progress.
- SoLo: the Cleveland-based firm provides a mobile lending exchange app, founded by Travis Holloway in April of 2018, is partnering with KC-based firm Adpredictive.
- Townfolio: the Canada-based company, founded by Ryley Iverson, provides city data as a service.
- Wattbuy: the online electricity marketplace enables users to save on electricity costs by providing access to cheaper providers.Check out a photo gallery from Techstars below.
