Powered by a purpose to ignite KC’s entrepreneurial spirit, LaunchKC invests more than $1 million a year in high-growth startups through accelerators, studios, and our grants competition.
Portfolio Companies
Jobs Created
Follow-On Capital
As we continue on our mission to bring the top startups to Kansas City, we felt the time was right to bring back our grants competition.
Each year, we invest $500,000 in Pre-Seed and Seed Stage companies that relocate to Downtown Kansas City, Missouri through our grants competition. Founded in 2014, LaunchKC is a nonprofit initiative of the Downtown Council (DTC) and the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) of Kansas City, Missouri.
The Social Venture Studio, powered by LaunchKC, connects business solutions rooted in solving social, environmental, or racial issues, with the firepower necessary to thrive. Ultimately, the program aims to create exponential societal impact by supporting scalable ideas and talent.
It was so incredible for us because it gave us so much immediate attention, everybody suddenly knew who we were and what we were doing. The funds and exposure were both so important to our company, it would be hard to say where we would be right now if we hadn’t received them.
The award was not just validating, but access to more capital at one time than we had ever had before.
