SPN Team

  • Polco completes another round of funding

    Polco completes another round of funding

    Online civics engagement start-up Polco closed a $1.7M round of equity funding on April 19, 2019. Though based in Madison, Wisconsin, Polco, short for Policy Confluence, Inc. was launched through the Bryan, Texas-based Seed Sumo accelerator in 2015. The company provides a communication platform that encourages community leaders to engage with the residents they serve…

  • ClickSWITCH builds new payments system, receives funding

    ClickSWITCH builds new payments system, receives funding

    ClickSWITCH, a Minneapolis based financial payments company, has announced that they had secured $13 million Series B Funding. This round was led by Commerce Ventures and Point72 Ventures. ClickSWITCH provides a white-labeled product that helps new and existing bank customers simplify and automate direct deposits and recurring payments. Banks are excited about this technology because…

  • Medical device start-up Simergent completes seed round

    Medical device start-up Simergent completes seed round

    Launched through the Chicago-based health-tech incubator Matter, medical device start-up, Simergent, LLC, recently closed a $2.835M round of seed funding on April 18. Led by Oklahoma-based i2E, Inc. with an investment of $1.475 million, the round also included contributions from the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund for $750,000, the Oklahoma Angel Fund for $500,000 and the…

  • Wells Fargo Foundation selects three Silicon Prairie companies for first agtech cohort

    Wells Fargo Foundation selects three Silicon Prairie companies for first agtech cohort

    Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) announced this week its selection of five companies nationally to participate in the incubator’s first agtech cohort – the program’s fifth cohort. IN2 is a technology incubator and platform funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). RNAissance Ag LLC is one of…

  • Coralville-based Handrail raises funds and adds IBM VP of Design to Board of Directors

    Coralville-based Handrail raises funds and adds IBM VP of Design to Board of Directors

    Handrail filed paperwork in early April with the SEC identifying $800k worth of commitments to a larger raise. Handrail is a company that focuses on user experience research. The website boasts that the company provides an end-to-end collaborative research and insights platform. Specific examples of how teams use Handrail include the ability to collaboratively plan,…

  • Roche Spin-off Nimble Therapeutics raises Series A financing

    Roche Spin-off Nimble Therapeutics raises Series A financing

    Drug discovery company, Nimble Therapeutics, Inc. based in Madison, Wisconsin secured $10 million in equity funding directed by San Francisco-based venture capital firm, Telegraph Hill Partners on April 30. Nimble Therapeutics spun out of Swiss-based F. Hoffman La Roche as an independent entity to facilitate the expansion of a unique chemical synthesis technology that Roche…

  • Lincoln-based BasicBlock continues expansion and evolution

    Lincoln-based BasicBlock continues expansion and evolution

      In a recent Facebook post, Taylor Monks, the CEO of BasicBlock, revealed that the company had received angel investment from world-famous angel investor, Jason Calacanis. This investment comes on the heels of BasicBlock receiving a Lincoln Launch grant. These fundings and the inherent support are signals of the significant growth and evolution of BasicBlock…

  • 8Qs with a Silicon Prairie Founder: Darcy Howe

    Growing up in St. Louis, my first boss picked me up at my parent’s house, popped open two beers, and without seatbelts, drove to Kansas City. That was the 70’s. Since then I’ve lived in NYC and then 36 years in KC, where my partners and I built the largest private wealth practice in our…