Leawood-based tech firm Torch.AI has hired a CFO with experience at accounting and law firms as well as other technology-focused companies.
Amy Bradshaw will lead risk management and financial strategy at Torch.AI, which developed artificial intelligence software that can quickly analyze large amounts of data to help enterprise customers solve problems and make decisions.
Torch.AI CEO Brian Weaver said the company hired Bradshaw after “a thorough nationwide search,” according to a release.
Before joining Torch.AI, Bradshaw most recently was CFO of Kansas City law firm DiPasquale Moore. Before that, she had a five-year stint at Netsmart Technologies as vice president of financial planning and analysis. Prior experience in her two-decade-plus career includes time at Arthur Anderson, Cerner Corp., MarketSphere Consulting and Kansas City-based tech firm mySidewalk, according to the release.
Bradshaw joins a company that certainly appears to be rising.
In late January, Torch.AI acquired a data-extraction software company called B23 based in the D.C. area that will increase opportunities for government contracts. That followed a December acquisition of Illinois-based The DataTech Group, which provides IT consulting and tech solutions, including for government agencies.
At the time of the deal, Torch.AI reported 120 employees, and Weaver said then that the DataTech acquisition would add 30 jobs in Kansas City. One of DataTech’s biggest clients is the Defense Department.
The Leawood tech startup is growing at a “phenomenal rate,” he said then, and its 2021 revenue growth was expected to eclipse 2020’s by about 300%. The company, founded in 2017, reported revenue of $11.87 million in 2020. Torch.AI landed on the Kansas City Business Journal’s Fastest-Growing Companies List, with 2018-2020 average annual revenue growth of 30.71%.
Also last year, Torch.AI raised a $30 million Series A and landed a $27 million tax incentive package from the Kansas Department of Commerce. As part of the deal, Torch.AI will create nearly 500 local full-time jobs over five years, with the average annual salary eclipsing $100,000. New hires will include engineers, solution architects, junior data scientists and sales positions.
Committed to bucking the trend of tech companies fleeing for the coasts, Weaver said last year that Torch.AI planned to move to a bigger short-term office and that the company plans to establish a research and technology center on the Kansas side of the metro area.
