Digital Sandbox KC, which provides proof-of-concept support for Kansas City’s youngest companies, is embarking on Phase Two and will start offering assistance to another round of startups.

Organizers broke the news—and took time to celebrate the project’s success—during a gathering Tuesday night at UMB’s downtown headquarters.

The Missouri Technology Corporation has pledged another $300,000 to the program, and the Kauffman Foundation and the Bloch School at the University of Missouri-Kansas City are putting up $200,000 and $100,000 respectively. UMKC also is offering spaces in its E-Scholars program, which includes incubator space.

It’s been two years since Kansas City landed a $1 million federal grant that helped launch Digital Sandbox KC, and 19 months since the program began offering coaching and assistance with development and product prototyping.

Organizers originally hoped to help 10 startups land follow-on funding. Instead, Digital Sandbox has helped 26 companies reach that goal, generating $10.2 million in investment. Even better, the program has assisted in the creation of 154 new local jobs.

“It has been an unbelievable success,” said Maria Meyers, the head of KCSourceLink and one of the driving forces behind Digital Sandbox KC. “It has beaten every metric we’ve put in front of it.”

Some of the city’s most promising startups—PlanetReuse, ShotTracker, Genneo and more—have received help through Digital Sandbox. In many cases, they’ve been partnered with larger companies like Sprint, Hallmark and UMB that have offered technical help from their own staffers.

The big guys say their staffers benefit from the interaction.

“They come back energized,” said Scott Morris, senior vice president of application development at UMB. “They come back looking at problems in a different way.”