INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

The mission of the Chicago Furniture Bank (CFB) is to provide dignity, stability, and comfort to Chicagoans facing poverty by allowing our clients to handpick an entire home’s worth of furnishings for free. As the country’s largest furniture bank, we furnish 15 client homes per day through partnerships with our...

Committed to Growth and Innovation Since 1935At William Blair, growth and innovation are in our DNA. As an independent, private partnership, we are committed to providing the world’s leading venture firms with the expert guidance and creative solutions required to unlock value for investors and their portfolio companies. We are...

Blue Bist is a boutique consulting company based in Chicago, IL. We specialize in change management, team dynamics, and operations transformations. We provide fractional and remote COO, CPO, and CTO support to startups and mentor first-time founders on how to scale. We are a diverse, professional, woman-owned business with a...

Halo Investing has built the first global marketplace for protective investments, empowering. Through the Halo platform, advisors and investors can easily access structured notes, buffered ETFs, annuities, and a whole suit of tools allowing them to customize, analyze, and manage protective investments tailored to their unique portfolio needs. Halo’s mission...

When a financial institution’s customers are financially healthy, everyone wins. SpringFour, an award-winning social impact fintech and a Certified B Corporation, connects financial institutions’ customers with resources that help them make their payments and get back on their feet. With a digital-based platform of more than 20,000 vetted financial resources,...

The leading source for training, staffing, and career transitions, General Assembly fosters a flourishing community of professionals pursuing careers they love. What began as a co-working space in Manhattan in 2011 has since evolved into a global education and career development company, with more than 70,000 graduates and 32 campuses...

ADA Business Innovation Group (ADABIG) is a subsidiary of the American Dental Association (ADA), formed in 2018 to help dentists solve the industry’s most pressing challenges. In 2019, ADABIG launched its first service: ADA Practice TransitionsTM (ADAPT), a state-of-the-art online platform designed to help dentists navigate career transitions. Today ADAPT...

INSTASHIELD FILLS PPE SHORTAGE, DONATES 1 MILLION SHIELDS TO PEOPLE IN NEED InstaShield™ is a new kind of face shield that ships flat and is folded to fit over a cap or visor. The company was founded in March 2020 by Dan Brown Jr. to help fill the nation’s PPE...

Healthcare innovation is often defined by radical discoveries like new vaccines or groundbreaking surgical techniques. But just as important are the innovations that reimagine how we use existing resources. These advancements make it possible for everyone to live their healthiest lives — through more equitable access to services that promote...

At P33, we started with one question: How does Chicago, and our region, stack up as a technology and innovation center? Through conversations with hundreds of technology and business leaders, founders, and tech workers, we learned we Chicago’s reputation as a tech center lags behind its perception.   We launched...

They both grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and met in high school. When Barrett Lombardo and Andy Crestodina graduated, they headed off to the University of Iowa together.   They shared a dorm room and one of those boxy Macintosh computers. It was the early 1990s. Most people...

A HIDDEN EPIDEMIC: Ten-year-old Tyler feels more like a “patient” than a “person.” Despite fourteen surgeries, he remains bright, inquisitive, fun, funny. But, Tyler can’t talk due to a tracheotomy. He travels with a portable suction to keep his lungs open, and never knows when he’ll be back in Intensive...

In the face of the obstacles challenging the augmented reality community, the BUNDLAR platform makes AR simple, affordable, and accessible to the average creator. We accomplish this with our proprietary Content Management System (CMS) and integrated mobile application. Instead of hiring expensive developers to build AR experiences, businesses and institutions...

Astronomy and space science are rich with breakthrough discoveries and big questions about the universe and our place in it. In this digital age, stunning imagery and detailed information is readily available—anyone with an internet connection can dive deep into any topic that piques their interest. In an information-saturated world,...

As the first and largest digital platform for finding in-home care, Sittercity, a Bright Horizons company, has come a long way since 2001. , We were the first to make online child care an employee benefit and we continue to connect millions of parents with babysitters and nannies every year....

Cyber security is an arms race that is positioned to continue indefinitely. New technologies are constantly emerging to combat cyber criminals, but regardless, criminals discover how to exploit them. Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and other security-focused vendors detect many of these attacks and alert their customers and the community,...

ABOUT PGVC Pritzker Group, founded by Tony and J.B. Pritzker, has three principal investment teams: Venture Capital, which provides early-stage venture funding to technology companies throughout the United States; Private Capital, which acquires and operates leading North America based companies; and Asset Management, which partners with top-performing investment managers across...

What started in 2003 as a mother’s vision to change the world’s perception of individuals with Down syndrome and create opportunities for her daughter, GiGi, evolved into a global movement of acceptance for all. GiGi’s Playhouse started in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and has catapulted to an entrepreneurial network of 60...

86 Repairs is the repair and maintenance management platform built for the restaurant industry. Our tech-enabled solution includes on-demand repair management and preventative maintenance. With 86 Repairs, restaurants have access to data-driven insights and 24/7 support to control their facilities, reduce their R&M costs, and spend less of their team’s...

At MATTER — a global innovation hub headquartered in Chicago — entrepreneurs come together with industry leaders, scientists and clinicians from across the globe to collaborate on developing next-generation healthcare technologies. We believe that collaboration between entrepreneurs and industry leaders is the fastest, most effective way to accelerate innovation, advance...

Our Mission At Topstep, our goal is to be where the world goes to safely engage in and profit from the financial markets. In a nutshell, what we do at Topstep is break down the barriers to entry in what has historically been a very exclusive industry. Our mission is...

Chicago HOPES for Kids is the only organization in Chicago that provides educational after school and remote learning programs for students experiencing homelessness in grades Kindergarten through 9th, directly to the shelters and communities where they live. It is our mission to provide students with the resources and encouragement they...