Startups Stories
Healium wins $50K in NFL pitch competition with play for pro athlete’s brain, heart health
Patrick Mahomes is no longer Missouri’s only MVP in the eyes of the NFL. The organization’s player’s association just crowned a Columbia-based startup the $50,000 winner of its annual pitch contest. In late April, NFLPA Pitch Day brought six diverse-led startups to Las Vegas to compete for prizes in its annual contest. Among them was…
UMKC pitch contest puts Cafe Cà Phê closer to Jackie Nguyen’s big goal; winners range from students to emerging startups
The University of Missouri-Kansas City continues to brew innovation — and the return of its Regnier Venture Creation Challenge (RVCC) Friday poured proof, offering more than $88,000 in critical cash prizes to percolating ventures that spill far beyond its classrooms. “I moved to Kansas City from Washington D.C. over the summer and I started following Cafe…
Halo championship arrives downtown as KC-built esports team ‘pioneers a dynasty’
KC Pioneers gain support of Chiefs, Charlie Hustle and other hometown household names for its #MyCity campaign as Kansas City hosts major esports tournament It’s time to showcase Kansas City’s esports and tech community on a global scale, said Mark Josey — and what better way to do so than with a worldwide tournament hosted…
Avatar for hire (in a few years): Gamified career platform helps kids explore their future in the workforce
It’s a powerful question asked in classrooms every day, Jessica Munoz Valerio said, recalling her own experience with the common prompt and how tapping into and gamifying it could change lives. “When my daughter was young — as early as 5 years old — she got asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’”she…
C2FO helped women-, minority-owned biz access nearly $2B in 2021 alone; why that slice of $200B is set to grow as company approaches $1T funded
Customers of C2FO have accessed more than $200 billion in working capital, the company announced, touting its wide-ranging successes and highlighting pandemic-era growth that has solidified its place as a world leader in the financing space — and a pace-setter for deploying capital to underserved businesses. “From Day 1, C2FO has worked to fill the…





