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Total Expert closes $20 million Series B deal led by Emergence Capital
Minneapolis-based Total Expert announced today that the firm has raised $20 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Emergence Capital with participation from Rally Ventures and Arthur Ventures, bringing Total Expert’s total funding to $34 million. The six-year old company is a marketing platform for the mortgage industry, but the firm plans…
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Minneapolis-based Inspectorio closes $10M deal
Inspectorio raised $10 million of Series A venture funding in July 2018. The deal, led by Techstars, with Target, Ecolab and Matchstick Ventures participating, paves the way for continued platform building for the company. At a glance… Inspectorio is a real-time dashboard solution for enhanced global supply chain performance, using mobile, web, and machine learning…
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SPN Top 10: Silicon Prairie communities from the Inc. 5000 list
Inc. Magazine does a great job of recognizing companies that are growing fast through its annual Inc. 5000. Since Silicon Prairie News supports entrepreneurs and technologists – we did a quick review of the Inc. 5000 to plaudits to communities doing well. From a raw numbers perspective, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Kansas City dominate.…
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Kansas City’s Firebrand Ventures closes fund at $17.7M
Firebrand Ventures announced the close of its seed fund on Wednesday, with an oversubscribed total of $17.7 million, nearly 250% over their initial goal of $7M. In a time when roughly 75-80% of venture capital raised in the U.S. still goes to California, Massachusetts and New York, Firebrand’s Kansas City-based fund is proving there’s VC interest…
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How to stoke a compelling mission and vision so people will buy in
For both small and large companies selling people on your mission and your vision are vital to your continued success. Not only do you need to be able to hire employees who can buy into these factors, but you must also convince your potential customers that they are true as well. However, creating, maintaining and…
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Midwest blockchain pioneers meet in Lincoln and announce a block-a-thon
Some of the brightest minds leading the Midwest blockchain movement gathered in Lincoln last week to make the case for the Midwest as a leader in blockchain technology and to announce Block-a-thon coming April 2018. “We’re all about planting seeds and joining forces with people that have a common vision, common ideas, and a common…
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How Lincoln and Omaha can do more together
This article originally appeared as a guest post on VentureBeat. Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, sits on the state’s eastern border. Head west on I-80 for 45 minutes and you’ll hit Lincoln, Nebraska’s second largest city. Both cities have burgeoning tech-startup scenes, are raising capital and funding, and are making impressive contributions to the…
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M25 releases Best of the Midwest: Startup Cities rankings
The Midwest is gaining increased attention as fertile ground for startups and entrepreneurs. Using publicly-available data on such things as number of startups, investor activity and cost of living, Chicago-based venture firm M25 Group has compiled a ranking of 54 cities in the region. “This has been a five-month process,” said Victor Gutwein, M25’s Managing…
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Catch a ride to NMotion Demo Day on the OMA/LNK Startup Bus Presented by LPED and SPN
Silicon Prairie News, in cooperation with the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development and NMotion, is proud to announce the OMA/LNK Startup Bus to shuttle community supporters from Omaha to Lincoln for the NMotion Demo Day on Thursday, August 10th. SPN’s recent State of the Silicon Prairie Report recommended that the Lincoln and Omaha startup communities…
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Kronfeld Motors wants to bring high-tech autocycle to sports and commuters
Startups like those in the 2017 NMotion Accelerator cohort often refine their product or do a complete pivot during the program. Rich Kronfeld, Founder and CEO of Minnesota-based Kronfeld Motors, doesn’t expect that to happen to him. “I think I know what the product is going to be, it’s not going to change that much,”…