INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

Displays have become ubiquitous in our society. We find them in smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs, drive through restaurants, ATM machines, thermostats, gas station pumps…the list is endless. Even still, there are notable negative impacts of displays which we have become accustomed to – excessive power consumption, subpar viewability in bright...

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...

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...

Envoy is a global immigration services provider offering the only immigration management platform that makes it seamless for companies to hire and manage an international workforce. We combine expert legal representation and proprietary technology to bring efficiency and transparency to the immigration process for employers and employees.   At Envoy...

Established in 2002 as the Chicago Innovation Awards, Chicago Innovation has grown from a single awards ceremony to a year-round series of events and programs to empower Chicago’s innovation ecosystem. Its vision is to solidify the Chicago region as a global hub of innovation and ensure that innovation is for...

The Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC) is a community of business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals committed to empowering individuals by helping them start and grow their businesses. As the largest community of Latino business owners across Illinois and the Midwest, they represent more than 100,000 businesses. Latinos in Illinois...

Steadfast began in 1998 as an internet-technology passion project for Steadfast’s Founder, Karl Zimmerman, when he was only 14 years old. Karl’s dream to help companies with their data hosting and security needs started early on, and through these relationships, Karl learned there was a frustrating gap with many hosting...

Freeborn is proud to deliver sector-specific legal advice that stems from decades of experience and a rich understanding of business and industry perspectives. Along with providing exceptional legal services, each Freeborn attorney embodies the firm’s five Core Values, integrity, caring, effectiveness, teamwork, and commitment, through high standards of client service...

A leader in digital medicine, dedicated to generating real-time health insight via physiological data and patented artificial intelligence (AI) analytics, physIQ is on a mission to transform healthcare. The physIQ enterprise-ready cloud platform is designed to continuously collect and process data from any wearable biosensor using an expanding portfolio of...

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...

The story of Nature’s Fynd™ begins millions of years ago, in an acidic hot spring located in what is today Yellowstone National Park when a remarkable microbe was born. In 2009, NASA-backed research on extremophiles led our co-founder to the park’s hot springs. He then isolated and discovered a remarkable...

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...

WHAT WE DO At Empist, we make it our mission to provide businesses of any size with the resources they need to thrive in the ever-changing technological landscape. With two decades of multifaceted technology experience, our team is ready to help you develop a tailored plan to scale your business....

WHAT WE DO ChangEd is an all-in-one debt management platform helping people build a better relationship with debt so they can reach their financial dreams sooner. ChangEd allows people with debt to link all their loans and spending accounts on one platform. We then analyze their debt load and develop...

It has become very fashionable over the last few years to talk about being “data-driven” or using “big data.” Companies are pouring billions of dollars into developing tools and hiring talent to get more from their data so they can find the insights, new customers, and behaviors that can help...

Before Chicago became a tech hub featuring world-renowned incubators like 1871 and more than a dozen unicorns, there was Technori – a small group of early adopters and startup founders on a mission to turn Chicago into the largest and most diverse tech community in the world. And, what began...

TERA-print is a nanotechnology company that is unlocking the power of ultrahigh precision prototyping with their innovative desktop nanoprinters. This technology is disrupting the way next-generation come to life, such as miniaturized sensors 1/100th the size of your fingernail, highly accurate diagnostic tests for diseases from cancer to Alzheimer’s, and...

Roomii is an online marketplace that lets you lease out your furniture to people who don’t want to own it. Our platform lets you earn a return on your furniture investment while helping people furnish their space short-term with quality pre-owned furniture. Roomii’s story began in the spring of 2020....

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,...

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...

The Chicago Connectory is a co-creation space and IoT incubator located in Chicago’s historic Merchandise Mart. Our co-working space builds business, collaboration, and network opportunities to our community. The Chicago Connectory opened its doors in May 2017. The idea for the Chicago Connectory sparked with Bosch, a multinational engineering and...

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...