A Wichita technology startup has received half of its capital requirements for 2024.
KaaS Inc., a technology startup in Wichita that invented the Ringorang habit formation software and recently launched its game app, has received $500,000 in funding from Wichita-based investors in its first pre-series-A investor round of 2024.
The startup, which has an office in the Garvey Center downtown, planned to raise $1 million in capital by participating in two investor rounds this year, according to a news release. It said the startup will participate in another pre-series-A investor round slated to start this month and be completed by the end of Q3.
"I'm thrilled that it got done as quickly as it did," Robert Feeney, co-founder and chief vision officer of KaaS, told the WBJ. "It gives us a strong indication that the second half is going to go just as well and puts us on a strong momentum toward the professional round, the Series A."
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Feeney credited the state's involvement with its Kansas Angel Investor Tax Credit program that supports qualified businesses by matching their investor's allocation by 50% with state tax credits.
"We were able to issue this to investors as an incentive and so it was great that we had a state that was willing to have a program like that to help getting investors more involved with startups," Feeney said.
KaaS's successful round of funding was led by Bonavia Industries, a Wichita company that invests in several Wichita developments and businesses, which include the Garvey Center. Bonavia president Nick Bonavia cited the competitive edge that KaaS's Ringorang software provides to organizations as a compelling attraction.
"The platform has a proven track record of implementing positive change and will have tremendous benefits to any organization rising to the challenge," he said.
The startup company launched a game app version of Ringorang in January called Future Ready. The game takes skills valued by an employer — including time management, communication, conflict resolution, dependability, mental health and innovation — and makes them into a teachable game. Feeney said the company has since diversified its focus to nonprofits, government organizations, schools and other social impact organizations.
"Our customers kept moving us in that direction," he said. "IBM are a good example. They wanted to use us to create the IBM culture in a company they bought. So it taught us that our customers keep using it (Ringorang) for soft skills. And usually, soft skills are needed in the squishy areas of social impact, where you change attitudes. That's what really got me into it. PersonalIy, I told my story in a video where I'd lost two brothers to suicide, and that had me taking on a desire professionally to find the key to behavior change to help somebody make their life work regardless of their circumstances."
Feeney and KaaS have added nonprofits, government organizations and education institutions to their target audience for Ringorang. Organizations like Goodwill Industries, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Kansas Department of Commerce and Wichita Public Schools are already partnered with the startup.
Planning for 2024 and beyond, Feeney said he is hoping to expand the reach of KaaS's game app from 4 to 30 states by the end of the year. He said the startup is currently partnered with the much-awaited OneRise Health Campus — where Wichita's psychiatric hospital is expected to be built — to deliver a program to developing airmen and their families working at the Mcconnell Air Force Base and two other bases in Arizona and Florida. Feeney said he eventually hopes to strike a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense for his technology to help airmen battle the stigma around talking about suicide and its prevention. He added that the startup is also on the verge of expanding its operations and services in its work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Feeney and the leadership at KaaS are confident that the startup could secure a $3 million-plus pre-series-A funding round in 2025.
"Since moving here, I've heard complaints that there is not enough investor involvement in Wichita startups," Feeney said. "Whether or not that's true, we've met our funding needs with multiple seed rounds in Wichita."
