Entrepreneur John Boucard is adept at inventing.

He collaborated with comic book icon Stan Lee on a secret decoder ring and related game system, and he worked with Hitachi to help build an advanced medical robot, which serves as a lab-based assistant for humans. He also worked on the team that invented Evolution Robotics’ Mint, a high-tech sweeper/mop tailored for hardwood floors.

Boucard now is focused on his Kansas City-based startup, Tesseract Ventures, which recently landed a $2 million investment from UMB Capital Corp. Tesseract Ventures specializes in developing products related to advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, and it has a lab dedicated to advanced research and development.

The funding injection will help development, including technology targeted for construction and design that focuses on the future of those two industries, Boucard said.

Tesseract Ventures has been strategic about its investors, and UMB has a talented team that got the startup’s vision, he said.

“And I like Mariner Kemper’s vision for the bank,” Boucard said. “He’s a very forward-thinking man.”

One of the company’s projects includes technology that potentially could provide a new way to visualize a memory, he said. Instead of viewing a two-dimensional photograph, picture being able to step inside a memory, he said.

“We’re working on the next jump,” Boucard said. “We’re working on the next interface or the next way to experience memories and social expression events in your life.”

He’s also thinking about new ways for humans to stay connected: “Think of it as the future of the greeting card — not what’s being done today — but the future of social expression. We believe we are accretive to what Hallmark is doing.”

Published by KC Business Journal
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