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Prepare.ai draws a sell-out crowd in its second year in St. Louis
The Prepare.ai Conference on Artificial Intelligence marked its second year last week at the Eric P. Newman Education Center in St. Louis, Missouri on April 9. The conference has grown since its inauguration last year, attracting 500 attendees from across the country to hear from a top-notch lineup of speakers on a range of Artificial…
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Applications are now open for St. Louis-based Ameren Accelerator
Ameren Corporation is accepting applications for the Ameren Accelerator, an innovative public-private partnership with the University of Missouri System, UMSL Accelerate and Capital Innovators. The goal is the Ameren Accelerator is to make the energy grid smarter, more reliable, resilient and secure. This unique partnership, which is entering its third year, evaluates, mentors and invests…
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Chicago-based Avail raises $2.5M in funding round led by Cultivation Capital
Avail, an end-to-end online platform that streamlines the rental process for do-it-yourself (DIY) landlords and their tenants, announced on Tuesday a $2.5 million funding round led by Cultivation Capital, a St. Louis-based venture capital firm. Avail has raised $5.4 million in funding to date. The funding comes on the heels of a period of significant…
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SPN Funny Page: “The Great Facade” by Growthology Lab
“How is everything going?” This is a common question we ask each other every day. In the world of entrepreneurship, this usually means: “How is your business going?” We like to answer these questions with something positive held close to the surface. Rarely does an entrepreneur disclose their challenges, because “everything is great!” This is…
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Milwaukee-based Bright Cellars raises next round
Bright Cellars has raised a new round of funding. Bright Cellars is a subscription wine club that prides itself on matching individual wine drinkers with wine that they will love. They do this by providing an online assessment that helps wine drinkers discover their own preferences in wine to ensure that their monthly subscription delivers…
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2019 Prometheus Awards winners announced
Technology Association of Iowa 2019 Prometheus Awards winners have been named. The Prometheus Awards took place last night in downtown Des Moines at the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center. It is the biggest event of the year for the TAI, a statewide membership organization that promotes and celebrates the technology industry in Iowa. The…
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8Qs with a Silicon Prairie Founder: Leah Buller
Preparation often ignites new opportunities; Leah Buller knows that innovative recipe well. In 2011 Leah Buller made the choice to leave the workforce and stay at home with her, then, young children. During that time, she knew that she didn’t want to sit out completely and decided that e-commerce would allow her to stay home…
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Fargo based c2renew raises round
On March 28, c2renew announced that it raised $150k from undisclosed investors. This fundraising was done in the form of SAFE notes (simple agreement for future equity). The company helps clients build custom bio-composite materials for their applications. For example, the company works with locally sourced waste in Fargo to make “stuff”. On the company’s…
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Entrepreneurship competition focuses on providing opportunities to the formerly incarcerated
Determination, Incorporated is hosting an upcoming entrepreneurship and development workshop––but it’s not what you might be expecting. Kansas City-based Determination, Incorporated is a startup nonprofit with a mission to create pathways to opportunity for formerly incarcerated people through entrepreneurship. Determination, Incorporated is hosting Rise Up, Get Started, Kansas City’s first entrepreneurship competition for formerly incarcerated…
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Kansas City-based PayIt raises $100 million plus from Insight Partners
On March 28, Kansas City-based PayIt announced that they had reached terms to infuse $100 million of new capital into their company. This round was led by Ryan Hinkle of Insight Partners’ New York City office. PayIt uses a proprietary, patent-pending payment platform to simplify paying government entities. The goal of the platform is to…