Skip To The Main Content

Results so far:

(based on 165 proof-of-concept projects funded for area startups)

  • Total amount awarded: $3,087,524
  • $198M in follow-on funding
  • 1,182 new jobs created, more than $169M in sales since inception

Read the Digital Sandbox KC 2022 Impact Report

Latest Updates

How Digital Sandbox KC and Comeback KC Ventures Are Helping Bring Innovation to Vaccines

Oct 09, 2022
Dan Schwarzlander and Nick Bennett of VaccineAssist

Thanks to mentorship and funding, Kansas City startup VaccineAssist can continue to innovate.

Digital Sandbox KC Fuels 6 More KC-area startups with support and early-stage project funding to build innovations

Oct 06, 2022
Digital Sandbox KC Q3 Awardees pictured: Ruth Shrauner, Poshed on the Go; Gonzalo Erdozain, Scout; Courtney Younglove, Health Partners MD; Chuck Schneider, Redpoint Summit; Chris Humphreys MyDigiRecords; and Laura Owen, Healthy ID.

Digital Sandbox KC completed its third-quarter 2022 application cycle, adding six new companies to its roster.

Monthly Newsletter

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter for updates and events.

How it works

The Sandbox provides critical proof-of-concept funding, mentoring and connections to help founders build viable innovations ready for follow-on funding. The Sandbox may cover expenses for project consultants, market research, equipment and other market validation, prototyping and beta testing needs. Digital Sandbox KC is a program of the UMKC Innovation Center’s Technology Venture Studio.

Learn More

Get Involved

Exceptional ideas. Extraordinary collaboration. We need your help in this community-wide effort.

Help our community build our next great companies. Be a mentor. Provide expertise. Try something new. Invest. Get in the Sandbox.

  • Become a Mentor

    Use your know-how to evaluate opportunities, grow ideas, and to find funding to help companies grow.

    More info »

  • Search Resources

    You can search more than 200 business resource organizations in the Kansas City area to find the right resource to reach your next milestone.

    More info »

  • Find Your Idea

    Our partner program, Whiteboard2Boardroom, connects entrepreneurs and established businesses to new technologies available for licensing at institutions in the bi-state region. Can you take one of them into the Sandbox?

    More info »

Corporate Partners

Support from corporate development teams at Sprint, VML, UMB, Hallmark and Cerner offers Digital Sandbox KC participants connections to industry experts, mentors, potential customers and follow-on funding resources

Additional partners are welcome. Contact us to find out more.

  • VML, one of the world's leading digital marketing agencies, delivers creative solutions at the intersection of marketing and technology.

  • With headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., privately-held Hallmark Cards, Inc. creates products sold in 38,000 retail stores across the U.S. and in 100 countries worldwide.

More Partners »