A raft of economic concerns made venture capital funding harder to get for companies in the Kansas City area and beyond.

Hawaiian Bros has served up another plate of funding. The Kansas City-based restaurant chain, which recently started franchising, raised $5.07 million, according to a Jan. 4 Form D filing. The company declined to comment on the raise. The latest funding round includes equity stakes and 12 investors, each of whom invested a minimum of $100,000. It appears that Hawaiian Bros aims to raise as much as $15 million in the latest round and needs $9.9 million more to reach its goal, according to the filing. Hawaiian…

Several signs pointed to the need for Charlie Hustle’s first marketing agency of record partnership. Charlie Hustle CEO and founder Chase McAnulty details the decision and where the local apparel brand is headed.

Area shopping centers have continued to attract new tenants this year, from beauty to apparel. While national chains are in the mix, many of the new tenants are local brands. We’ve rounded up the new additions for several centers: Town Center Plaza, Town Center Crossing, Park Place and Hawthorne Plaza, which recently sold to an affiliate of Kansas City-based Lane4 Property Group Inc. Ruby Jean’s Juicery: Kansas City-based company that offers healthy cold-pressed juices, smoothies and grab-and-go…

Community CareLink, which spun out of a local nonprofit, landed an investment from Paul Black, formerly COO of Cerner Corp. and CEO of Allscripts.

More brands are seeing the value in 3D content, driving growth for Kansas City-based startup Epigraph.