In my most-recent Forbes article, I shared about 12 Chicago-based VCs that are behind hot startups both within our region, like G2 Crowd, and beyond, like SpaceX. These firms tend to get a lot of buzz and make national headlines, but they are far from being the only venture investors in Chicago that fuel entrepreneurs. There…
Last week’s report about the state of women leadership in Chicago tech was a powerful reminder of where our successes are and where we can continue to improve. The data creates actionable opportunity for everyone — from individual contributors, to executives, to investors — to catalyze our city and industry toward fostering a more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem for…
Chicago is quietly becoming a hotbed of venture capital that fuels technology startups — not just in Chicago but across the country and in a wide range of industries. For example, did you know that Calm, SpaceX, and Coinbase all received funding from Chicago VCs? There are dozens of top VCs in the area that…
Last week, enterprise software marketplace G2 Crowd announced the winners of its Best Software Awards 2019. This is a list of the best software products and companies, according to G2 Crowd’s algorithm that analyzes 500,000 verified customer reviews of nearly 60,000 products. Among that list are 11 Midwest companies that are not only top in the region…
As the new year gets underway, 2018’s fundraising numbers are rolling in, allowing us to get a snapshot of how the Midwest’s top startups fared. It was a good year for the Midwest, which we define here as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Here is a list of each Midwest state’s top VC…
I kicked off 2018 by telling you about 5 Chicago startups that would help you keep your New Year’s resolutions. Those startups were focused on helping you eat better. To bookend the year, I want to focus on 5 Midwest startups whose technology will help you live better in 2019. We are witnessing an interesting and…
2018 is quickly drawing to its close, but the Midwest’s venture capital activity is still buzzing. Just this week, celebrity shoutout marketplace startup Cameo announced that it closed a $12.5 million round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Cameo’s round is one of several marketplace startups to gain strength this year, which highlights a broader…
Although Chicago’s bid to become the site of Amazon’s second headquarters (“HQ2”) didn’t win, the tech giant inspired Chicago leaders to build more than a landing spot for one company; leaders are now on a quest to build a landing spot for the most innovative technology companies in the world. The leadership committee that the city assembled…
Chicago-based startup G2 Crowd announced that it raised a $55 million Series C round, which it will use to increase its headcount by 500% and further disrupt the $3.7 trillion enterprise technology market. The round was led by IVP, with participation from Accel and Emergence Capital, and brings the company’s total funding raised to $100 million. This is one of the…
PitchBook revealed its 2018 Chicago VC Ecosystem report, released in conjunction with ChicagoNEXT’s Chicago Venture Summit. This report finds that Chicago continues to outpace other U.S. venture ecosystems — including the Bay Area — in median multiple on invested capital (MOIC). Chicago startups give investors a median MOIC of 5.6 times, considerably exceeding the city’s coastal counterparts. (MOIC is calculated…