Chicago is a leading tech hub and bustling epicenter of venture capital investment activity, with $6 billion invested in 2023 across 298 pre-venture capital deals and 88 early stage VC deals. Several notable startup unicorns were founded in Chicago, such as ActiveCampaign, Avant and Cameo.
As part of our going series of free fundraising resources and investor lists for founders, this article explores the top 15 active VC firms and investors based in Chicago, including details regarding their fund size and history:
1. ARCH Venture Partners
Over 30 years, ARCH has backed disruptive science companies with as little as $50K to as much as hundreds of millions of dollars, per company. ARCH is not interested in following the crowd. They are contrarian, bold, and imaginative risk takers. They follow the science to found companies based on revolutionary technologies that can impact people’s lives, and take a long-term view when building companies. That’s why they are flexible in their approach and size portfolio company investments as needed. ARCH’s extended network of partners helps build companies through the formation stages and grow to their full potential.
- Founded: 1986
- Fund Size: $7.7B
- Website: archventure.com
2. Pritzker Group Venture Capital
Pritzker Group Venture Capital helps entrepreneurs build market-leading technology companies at every stage of their growth. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has worked side-by-side with entrepreneurs at more than 100 companies, building partnerships based on trust and integrity. Its proprietary capital structure allows for tremendous flexibility, and their experienced team of investment professionals and entrepreneurs offers companies a vast network of strategic relationships and guidance. Successful exits in recent years include Fleetmatics (NYSE: FLTX), SinglePlatform (acquired by Constant Contact), Zinch (acquired by Chegg), Playdom (acquired by Disney), LeftHand Networks (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), and TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster).
- Founded: 1996
- Fund Size: $190M
- Website: pritzkergroup.com
3. Jump Capital
Jump Capital is an early-stage venture firm that provides capital and strategic resources for companies within the fintech, IT/Data infrastructure, crypto, future of commerce/media, and B2B SaaS sectors. They have a strong affinity for companies focused on prescriptive/deep data, passionate and tenacious management teams, and founders with an execution-focused mindset. Jump’s philosophy is to align with talented management teams that desire a trusted partner with real-world operating experience and a firm with an operating platform targeting initial investment checks between $2M to $10M.
- Founded: 2012
- Fund Size: $650M
- Website: jumpcap.com
4. Second Century Ventures
Second Century Ventures brings a highly collaborative approach to venture capital. In addition to capital investments, they provide unparalleled market expertise through strategic partnerships, a diversely skilled team, and access to a rapidly growing global community of entrepreneurs and practitioners. They fuel innovation through investment, people and technology, and are backed by the National Association of REALTORS® – a 1.4M member strong trade association with 100 bilateral partnerships across 85 countries.
- Founded: 2009
- Fund Size: $4M
- Website: scv.vc
5. Lightbank
Lightbank VC is a $380M AUM venture fund that invests in early-stage consumer, enterprise, healthcare, crypto, fintech and climate companies. It focuses on pre-seed, seed and Series A opportunities where they write initial checks between $250k – $5m. They have invested in over 150 companies such as Tempus, Udemy, Fiverr (NYSE: FVRR), Sprout Social(NYSE: SPRT), Boom Supersonic, Tastytrade (acq. $1B+), Clearcover, Extend and Expel.
- Founded: 2010
- Fund Size: $360M
- Website: lightbank.com
6. Hyde Park Venture Partners
Hyde Park Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on high-growth, mid-continent technology startups. They seek companies with an exceptional founding team and fast-growth potential, looking to raise a first or second round of capital. Headquartered in Chicago, their team is tenacious, responsive, and committed to adding value to each investment.
- Founded: 2011
- Fund Size: $190M
- Website: hydeparkvp.com
7. Valor Equity Partners
Valor Equity Partners is an operational growth investment firm focused on non-control and control investments in high growth companies across various stages of development. For decades, we have served companies with unique expertise to solve the challenges of growth and scale. They partner with leading companies and entrepreneurs who are committed to the highest standards of excellence and the courage to transform their industries. Valor uses their proven deal sourcing capabilities and broad relationships with entrepreneurs, managers, and other successful investors to identify investments in leading growth companies. Their unique investment strategy, supported by robust internal research function, is focused on identifying companies that align with their view on long-term fundamental demand drivers and that have excellent market opportunities. This is further enhanced by deep expertise in the consumer, infrastructure and industrial services, and manufacturing sectors. Valor’s operationally active style is compelling to high growth companies seeking expertise to support execution of their strategy. In a process that begins before a transaction closes, they collaborate with the management teams of portfolio companies to develop strategic and operational plans focused on enhancing management capabilities, establishing operational best practices, and accelerating growth.
- Founded: 1995
- Fund Size: $6B
- Website: valorep.com
8. OCA Ventures
We’re a hands-on, collaborative, and entrepreneur friendly early stage venture capital firm. They focus on equity investments in companies with dramatic growth potential, primarily in technology and highly-scalable services businesses.
- Founded: 1999
- Fund Size: $242M
- Website: ocaventures.com
9. Chicago Ventures
Chicago Ventures launched in 2012 to fill an acute market gap. At the time, early-stage capital flowed as if innovation were restricted by geography. Venture dollars were raised and distributed all within a few select area codes. They believed then, and know today, that enduring companies can be built anywhere, by anyone.
- Founded: 2012
- Fund Size: $181M
- Website: chicagoventures.com
10. S2G Ventures
S2G Ventures is a multi-stage food and agriculture venture fund investing in entrepreneurs whose products and services meet the shifting demands for healthy and sustainable food. The firm’s mission is to catalyze innovation to meet consumer demands for healthy, sustainable, and local food. S2G will identify sectors across the food system thatare ripe for change, and form a multi-stage portfolio including seed, venture, and growth-stage investments. It seeks to invest in agriculture, ingredients, infrastructure and logistics, food safety and technology, retail and restaurants, and consumer brands. S2G Ventures was established in 2014 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
- Founded: 2014
- Fund Size: $505M
- Website: s2gventures.com
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