Investors Stories
Winning element: KU-linked startup mines critical spot-cash support at Pure Pitch Rally
Bri Farris was a little surprised at the backing — and stack of novelty checks — given to Electravera at Monday’s Pure Pitch Rally, she said, even though her startup’s innovative electrochemical process to recover high-purity lithium and cobalt derivatives tracks well with the region’s momentum around critical materials.
KC ranks No. 11 among Midwest startup hubs; why it needs its own big news day to get VCs’ attention
Investors are looking for more big outcomes — from billion-dollar valuations to IPOs — and plentiful startups in the pipeline behind them, said Victor Gutwein, delivering the verdict on Kansas City for his firm’s 2026 ranking of Midwest startup cities. Cues from KC’s most competitive neighbors could help it move up the list, he added.
Capital flows from relationships; this VC wants investors building them, not mining spreadsheets
Unlike the growing wave of AI startups promising to transform investing itself, one Midwest-built software platform launched by an industry insider focuses on a much narrower problem for VCs: organizing the steady stream of quarterly updates, financial metrics, documents and communications that arrive from portfolio companies.
InvestMidwest taps 9 Kansas City startups to pitch as conference returns to KC in April
Returning to InvestMidwest this spring feels like a meaningful way to showcase Romy Carlson’s company, the Enrichly founder said, pointing to the startup summit’s power to platform regional innovation and the entrepreneurs at the forefront.
How AI changes the the founder code: ‘This is all moving faster than anyone expected’
New tech opportunities — like artificial intelligence — hold the potential to equalize the Kansas City region among more established startup hubs, investment leaders said Thursday, but to fully take advantage, entrepreneurs who want strong, lasting companies must have a fire inside them. Not to mention grit. “Several really incredible entrepreneurs said, ‘I think the one…