Investment firm (Antonio Gracias); participated in a16z-led round for Special (2026-06).

Founded 1986 as UChicago initiative to commercialize UChicago + Argonne National Lab IP. Now independent deep tech + life sciences VC. Chicago + Seattle + SF offices. Deployed $3B+ in life sciences 2024–2025. Seed/early stage. Founding GP: Steven Lazarus; current MD: Keith Crandell.

Founded by Groupon co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. Consumer tech, enterprise, fintech, climate. Seed through late stage. Notable: Groupon, Sprout Social.

#1 university-affiliated tech incubator in US. Merchandise Mart, Chicago. 140K sq ft. 500+ startups. Ranked #1 university-affiliated US incubator. Hub for Chicago tech ecosystem.

Chicago + Indianapolis B2B software VC. Seed–Series A. $250K–$4M checks. High-growth Midwest tech. SaaS, adtech, mobile. Notable: Geofeedia, Avant, FourKites.

Most active early-stage VC exclusively in Midwest. Chicago HQ. 14 states. Data-driven seed. 100+ companies.

Chicago seed/early-stage VC.Teams with unfair customer acquisition advantage. Notable: Telnyx, NowSecure.

Chicago pre-seed/seed. Deep tech, hard tech, IoT, AI, blockchain, B2B SaaS for legacy industries. $42.6M Fund II.

Venture arm of Pritzker family. Digital technology, consumer, manufactured products. Notable: Tempus AI (IPO June 2024, $6B valuation).

Northwestern University student/alumni entrepreneurship hub. Evanston IL. Pre-accelerator support, mentoring, early-stage community. Gateway to Northwestern VC network.

Mid-market PE fund-of-funds