Digital Sandbox KC Companies Selects Four New Companies

Digital Sandbox KC Companies Selects Four New Companies

While the echoes of Kansas City TechWeek are still fresh,  Digital Sandbox KC proudly announces four new innovative companies for the Sandbox. These latest recipients of proof-of-concept support are working on challenges in trucking, nursing retention, identity verification and no-shows.   

Digital Sandbox KC is a proof-of-concept program that significantly and rapidly moves early-stage entrepreneurs from concept to commercialization. It is a unique collaboration among private, public, university/research and philanthropic organizations. 

 “Our role in Kansas City’s ecosystem continues to be helping move very early-stage entrepreneurs down the path to commercialization, and we continue to see that working,” said Jeff Shackelford, director of Digital Sandbox KC.  “With five of the 10 2016 LaunchKC grant winners receiving project funding from Digital Sandbox, we see even more proof that our entrepreneurial system is working great in Kansas City.”

The companies selected for support include:

The Agreeable Company is developing a mobile app (Agreeable) that allows individuals planning meetings (especially those with strangers such as through Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist) to do so in a safer and more reliable manner. The in-app messaging and agreements function allows both parties to work out details, including a no-show fee.

“We’re excited to have been selected for Digital Sandbox KC,” said Ian Hoffman, co-founder and CEO. “It’s great to see others believe in our vision as much as we do, and this will allow Agreeable to grow our website features, giving our customers a more comfortable and full-featured tool for their meetings.”

B2G Data addresses the issue of nursing retention through a mobile app that allows nurses to record activities, earn points for those activities and then redeem those points for incentives such as paid time off, gift cards, raffles and catalog items.

“We are very excited that Digital Sandbox KC has given their endorsement to our nurse retention app with both encouragement and finances,” said Gary Abram, DEO of B2G Data. “Digital Sandbox KC’s support will allow us to expand the app’s ability to work with multiple clients at once.”

PreScreend is a predictive analytics platform that provides businesses and consumers a way to authenticate and verify someone’s real identity. Big data is also used to identify criminal methods and create behavioral DNA, allowing for identification based on how a person acts, rather than their genetic make-up.

“In law enforcement, we always find ourselves being reactive when someone becomes the victim of a crime,” said Dustin Abercrombie, founder and CEO. “PreScreend will finally provide people with a way to be proactive with their personal safety. This opportunity allows for us to expand our technology infrastructure and automation capabilities while reducing the number of victims exponentially.”

Windsor Trucking Solutions creates SaaS compliance solutions for the trucking industry. Their IFTA Plus product is an online quarterly fuel tax preparation site that makes it fast and easy for truckers to prepare International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) returns.

“I’m extremely excited to be part of Digital Sandbox,” said Jason Read, CEO of Windsor Trucking Solutions. “The funding is key for the development of our Partner Integration Platform, which is foundational to the company’s growth and the continuing integration demands from partner organizations.”

Both Windsor Trucking Solutions and PreScreend are located in Olathe and are supported through a special funding partnership with the City of Olathe. One other Digital Sandbox KC company from Olathe has been funded, and another was able to locate a distribution center in Olathe as a result of the partnership.

Launched in February 2013, the Digital Sandbox KC has worked with more than 300 entrepreneurs and early-stage companies across the metro area.

Results for Digital Sandbox KC thus far have included:

•             77 proof-of-concept funded for area startups

•             34 new businesses created

•             339 jobs created

•             $28.2 million in follow-on funding

Applications for Digital Sandbox KC are taken on a rolling basis and evaluation/selection cycles run eight weeks. Sandbox funding may cover expenses for project consultants, legal support, equipment and other market validation, prototyping and beta testing needs. Currently funding is available for Kansas City area companies in Missouri and Olathe, Kansas. The City of Independence recently launched a special project with Digital Sandbox KC aimed at its residents and GXP Investments partnered to create the Energy Sandbox. Visit www.digitalsandboxkc.com for more information on any of the Sandbox programs.

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