After a bundle of press earlier this month covering its latest round of funding, Dwolla on Tuesday landed back in the headlines for its involvement in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The Des Moines-based payments network is used by exchanges of ... read more
May 9, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Omaha According to Ben Milne, one of the biggest mistakes a founder can make is to abandon the Silicon Prairie and its Midwestern roots. And he should know. Without the community surrounding his Des Moines-based company, Milne said Dwolla probably wouldn't be thriving today. "Had we not stayed here, we would not have made the friendships with people in this room," he said. "Had we not stayed here … read more
May 7, 2013 by Megan Bannister
Des Moines Classes may be out for the summer, but Dwolla is bringing teachers, students and administrators back together for its second Des Moines hackathon. … read more
May 1, 2013 by Geoff Wood
Des Moines Here we go again with the ag stuff. As most of my friends will tell you, it peeves me when the national media stereotypes Iowa based on its agricultural history. By almost any account, Dwolla's announcement Tuesday of its $16.5 million Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz was a great thing for Des Moines' startup community. It brought continued attention to what's been growing here, added more than 30 startup jobs here … read more
April 30, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Des Moines-based Dwolla today announced it closed a $16.5 million Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm whose portfolio includes Airbnb, Pinterest and Stripe, another payments startup. Three of Dwolla's previous investors, Village Ventures, Thrive Capital and Union Square Ventures, also participated … read more
Des Moines Dwolla founder and CEO Ben Milne on Sunday published a personal blog post that shared his latest perspective on Bitcoin, a virtual currency that's once again hit the headlines and public interest. His company is involved in the Bitcoin ecosystem as it's used to … read more
March 5, 2013 by Fred Bauters
Prairie Village After more than a year in development and a seed round of $1.5 million, AgLocal last week launched into private beta with 20 notable New York City chefs. The Kansas City area startup aims to improve its restaurant industry offering as it recruits top-tier chefs from the coasts—San Francisco is next—to test … read more
January 22, 2013 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Dwolla is back in the Iowa spotlight. Two days after the Des Moines startup dominated the pages of Iowa's largest newspaper, it joined the state's governor and lieutenant governor today (left) to announce a partnership that begins to make the cash-based payments network a payment option for taxpayers. Dwolla's first integration with the state will focus on the Iowa Department of Revenue, giving some businesses the option to pay via Dwolla … read more
December 27, 2012 by Michael Stacy
Iowa City Koala Pay, a mobile application launched last month, is out to help merchants cultivate a more loyal and engaged customer base, starting with users of web-based payments network Dwolla. Released in the App Store on Nov. 26 and officially unveiled at a Dwolla meetup Nov. 30 in Des Moines, Koala Pay was designed to provide merchants a channel for marketing directly to customers and to give customers deals and discounts to their favorite merchants. "It’s a mobile app that allows merchants to create more loyal and engaged customers," said Troy Miller … read more
December 13, 2012 by Danny Schreiber
Des Moines Earlier this week, we shared the story behind the New York Times' Silicon Prairie story. In research for that post, I spoke with Jordan Lampe, director of communications at Dwolla, the Des Moines-based startup prominently featured in the story. In addition to learning about Lampe's role in The Times story, I took the opportunity to ask the early Dwolla hire how he's gone about securing consistent and notable press for the payments network. Dwolla is one of the most buzzed about startups in the Silicon Prairie region and, at some points … read more
Through August 22, help us decide the winners of our inaugural Silicon Prairie Awards, which will recognize 12
companies and individuals. You can vote once per day per category.
Winners will be announced live on stage at
our August 30 event.