What’s New 🐅 

Wow, it was a crazy quarter in Columbia with Missouri Startup Weekend, Capital Camp, graduation, and much more. EquipmentShare raised a $600M bond, Biography Health raised a Pre-Seed, FinLocker closed a $17M Series B, and Zapier is at the forefront of AI with OpenAI. Outside of tech, we can’t wait to cheer the top ten ranked tiger football team — try to catch one of the Redbud VC-sponsored tailgates this year. Also, stop by the Redbud VC Columbia office with new branding in the Arcade District:

New founder spotlight and Q&A every Monday!

Highlights from Columbia and Beyond 📈

Get ready for the upcoming inaugural RMG Summit for founders, professionals, and investors in the Built Environment, hosted by Redbud VC, MetaProp, and Gateway South in NYC on June 13.

The winners from Missouri Startup Weekend 2024 were swept by Mizzou students and alums

1. 🏆️ Solvtax, automated property tax filing, and tracking was led by David Beach, Mizzou alum

2. 🥈 Music Den, WeWork for musicians, was led by Mizzou student and Redbud intern Kiley Grimes

3. 🥉 Fynch Interactive, higher-quality Roblox game production, led by Mizzou students Noah Fouts and Lucas Crow

Capital Camp, arguably the best even held in Columbia, MO, was a success yet again. The Permanent Equity does a fantastic job bringing ~400 alternative asset fund managers and founders worldwide for a three-day food and finance festival. Put their next event, Main Street Summit, on your radar for October 8-10 for tech startup and middle market operators and investors.

Interested in investing in Mizzou alums or students?💰️ Sign up below

Campus Chatter 📣

Applications are now open for the Mizzou Incubator sponsored by Redbud VC and EquipmentShare.Students from the four UM System universities can participate in the studio at the Griggs Innovators Nexus in the MU Student Center. The program offers education, mentorship, and financing opportunities.

Student and Alumni Entrepreneurs 🚀

Alumni Company of the Month 🔥

Zapier, the largest connecting of web apps (5k) in the world, was founded by three Mizzou alums (Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, and Mike Knoop) who also worked at Mizzou-founded Veterans United Home Loans, the largest VA lender in the US. 6 months ago Zapier was the only company at OpenAI’s demo day and now they are at the forefront of AI with their AI automation workflow features.

Alumni Fundraising 💰️ 

• EquipmentShare: $600M debt financing

• FinLocker: $17M Series B

• SayeTech (student): $100k from AgFunder

• Biography Health: Pre-Seed round with participation from Redbud VC

Alumni Job Openings 💼 

• Premiere 

• Resla (front-end developer, respond to this email)

• HoundDog

If you would like to be featured in our next newsletter, please email [email protected]