Silicon Prairie News covers the tech startup scene across Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. Here are some of our favorite Missouri stories from this year:

1. Farmobile raises $5.5 million in Series A (Kansas City)

In December Farmobile, one of the premier ag tech startups in the region, announced they had closed their Series A fundraising round for $5.5 million, led by Amsterdam-based venture fund Anterra Capital. Farmobile is a champion of farmers retaining the rights to their data.

2. Why Riot Games loves St. Louis (St. Louis)

While Riot Games isn’t a startup based in STL, their story highlights the recent surge in tech activity in St. Louis. Square, Pandora and Uber all have announced this year that they are opening offices in the city.

3. 11 questions with PopBookings co-founder Erika Klotz (Kansas City)

There’s been a lot of buzz around event staffing startup PopBookings this year. We ran into Erika Klotz in Sioux City at Base 3 earlier in the year, and then caught up with her again after her company won People’s Choice out of this year’s Launch KC grant competition.

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4. This man created Juristat to predict the future of patents (St. Louis)

Juristat, a SaaS company that helps lawyers predict a successful patent application, started as a winning Startup Weekend pitch in 2012. Today it has a team of 15 employees and has raised almost $2 million in investment.

5. The 10 startups who won $50k LaunchKC grants at Techweek (Kansas City)

One of the biggest highlights of this year was the Launch KC grant competition, modeled closely on the Arch Grants. Each of the winners received a $50,000 grant as well as a red carpet of local services and support. Winners included several local companies including Blooom, Health ID, SquareOffs, Popbookings and Video Fizz.

6. After the hype, what’s next for Invisible Girlfriend? (St. Louis)

Invisible Girlfriend launched this January with massive national buzz. But what started out as something of a joke is now being turned into a legitimate business. Matt Homann, co-founder of the renamed Invisible Industries, gives some fascinating insight into launching in the Midwest.

7. DivvyHQ closes $1.8 million Series A, expands team (Kansas City)

Content workflow startup DivvyHQ announced in July the close of their $1.8 million Series A round. The company plans to use the funding to expand their space and hire key members to their team.

8. Pushup Social brings social power back to the brands (St. Louis)

Pushup Social is one of a few social networking startups in the region, and they are looking to solve hard problems social marketers. Dan Lohman, co-founder and CEO of Pushup Social, is a 2015 Pipeline Fellow.

9. How SquareOffs connects Kansas City to New York City (Kansas City)

More companies are proving that launching in the Midwest is an asset, not a limitation. SquareOffs CEO Jeff Rohr explains how they use the benefits of both KC and NYC to their advantage.

10. “Science is hard”: QA with Cofactor Genomics’ Dave Messina (St. Louis)

With all the recent drama over Theranos, we were interested in sitting down with one of St. Louis’ most promising genetic testing startups. Cofactor Genomics co-founder Dave Messina is decidedly a low-drama personality, with a level-headed humility that is distinctively Midwestern.

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Ryan Pendell is the Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News.