Top Startups to Watch in Chicago: A list of 50 Companies On The Rise

Chicago is becoming a thriving business hub in the world. With a market valuation of $28.6 bn, this city’s startup ecosystem is expanding at a record pace in the country.

From agriculture and healthcare to technology and financial services, Chicago lures startups with its rising diversity in business domains. Also, it has excellent fundraising opportunities, reasonable cost of living, and excellent school areas. As a result, the windy city has successfully got its name listed in Inc.’s list of Surge Cities. 

Out of thirty-five, more than ten fortune 500 companies in Illinois have their headquarters in Chicago, for example, Boeing and Archer Daniels Midland. Consequently, this city has become the best place and first choice for starting a new business. We have conducted thorough research and curated a list of top startups in Chicago for you to keep an eye on.

1. LogicGate

LogicGate is one of the growing companies in Chicago that provides SaaS solutions for Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) management. This company was founded by Jon Siegler, Dan Campbell, and CEO Matt Kunkel in 2015 to help businesses reduce risk and damage compliance through its agile GRC platform. This platform automates the processes in risk and compliance-related disorganized processes. 

Using LogicGate’s GRC platform, organizations can streamline the work and operate all GRC activities transparently. What’s more, the company has been recognized as a Strong Performer in the Forrester Wave 2021 report. 

Industry Vertical: SaaS – Enterprise Software

Founded Date: 2015

Total Funding Value: $156M 

2. Clearcover

This Illinois-based company is proving its competency in the fintech industry with its digital solution for car insurance. Clearcover was founded by Derek Brigham and Kyle Nakatsuji to help people by providing affordable car insurance with better coverage at budgetary cost. And all the insurance-related tasks can be managed through its mobile app. 

Moreover, This startup received the opportunity to get listed in INC magazine as one of the best workplaces in 2020.  

Industry Vertical: Auto Insurance, FinTech, and InsurTech

Founded Date: 2016

Total Funding Value: $304.5M

3. Forager

Founded by Matt Silver, Forager is a logistics-based company that makes cross-border freight operations easy and cost-effective with its tech solutions. Forager is helping shippers and carriers across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. handle complexities they face during cross-border shipping. This startup offers excellent logistic services for shippers and carriers through its seamless and modern digital transportation solutions and a web-based transportation management platform. 

Industry Vertical: Logistics and Supply Chain Management 

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $14.8M

4. Cooler Screens

Cooler Screens is a one-of-its-kind startup in the retail industry, which was founded to provide an excellent Consumer Experience (CX) by offering digital display screens. These interactive digital displays were designed for brick-and-mortar retail stores to modernize the in-house shopping experience. These screens are introduced to replace glass doors in retail store aisles as a marketing tool. 

This startup also provides a media and merchandising platform named Cooler Platform. This platform focuses primarily on the company’s vision of CX by facilitating consumers with relevant product information to make better purchase decisions. It helps retail stores with smart promotions, digital planograms, real-time pricing, etc., to market their products at an effective POS. 

Industry Vertical: Digital Marketing and Retail Services 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $80.7M

5. Leaf Trade

Leaf Trade is a growing B2B marketplace that provides fully integrated online eCommerce solutions to the wholesale cannabis industry. This company helps cannabis wholesalers, cultivators, and dispensaries streamline orders, manage orders and drive sales. Additionally, it focuses on serving as a CRM and enterprise tool. With a passion for helping the cannabis industry grow exponentially, this startup has raised $10.5M over three funding rounds.

Industry Vertical: POS for eMarketplace – Cannabis 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $10.5M

6. CoPilot

With an aim “to be an expert in your pocket while buying a car,” this automotive startup was founded by a Chicago entrepreneur Pat Ryan. CoPilot provides a digital platform that assists people with car buying – from finding the right vehicle to loans, insurance, and maintenance. It focuses on helping people make informed decisions about buying a car at the best possible price and servers as a personal expert. CoPilot uses Machine Learning (ML) and human expertise to make the car buying experience the best. 

Industry Vertical: Automotive

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $17M

7. K4 Mobility

K4 Mobility is a one-of-its-kind startup in Chicago, IL, with a vision of bringing satellite internet technology to the open sea. This company provides a digital platform that helps maritime vehicles find the best network available to use anytime and anywhere using software algorithms. 

From yachting, commercial shipping to cruise lines and leisure boats, this startup is offering its software, hardware solutions, and broadband services with a mission to provide a secure platform and internet access to maritime ships. 

Industry Vertical: Internet and Marine Transportation

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $13.5M

8. Fyllo

Fyllo is growing expeditiously in the highly regulated industries with its services and software solutions. This startup helps CBD consumers and cannabis companies through its digital platform, which uses AI and proprietary algorithms to streamline compliance in real-time. Moreover, this platform help organizations in the cannabis market to navigate legalities across different places at ease. In just two years, this startup has gained the trust of several mainstream brands like Glassroots, Public Health Institute, etc. 

Industry Vertical: Enterprise Software and The Cloud – Cannabis 

Founded Date: 2019

Total Funding Value: $58M

9. Cohesion

Cohesion has brought a revolutionary change in the real estate market with its smart building SaaS platform. Its platform provides self-service tools to owners, operators, and tenants of commercial buildings. The services provided are related to building operations, improvement of tenant experience, and smart controls for contactless access. It also uses IoT, which connects buildings, people, and systems via devices to automate the operations and turn building data into actionable insights.

Its vision is to help the real estate business enhance operational transparency and tenant experience along with cost reduction. Some of its enticed clients include John Buck Company, Riverside Investment & Development, and Transwestern.

Industry Vertical: Internet of Things and SaaS

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $8.5M

10. BrokerX

Founder of BrokerX, Brett Jurishi, brings data technology to the energy industry. He has introduced a cloud-based platform for energy brokers to streamline, simplify the operations and customer lifecycle. Moreover, with its flagship product, the company successfully made it into the list of top 6 tech companies to watch in 2021. It helps establish buyer-seller trust in the deregulated energy trading market with its digital services. 

BrokerX, with its proprietary technology, enables users to access unobtainable data, standardize the energy usage data and the pricing process. 

Industry Vertical:  Energy and CRM

Founded Date: 2018

11. Livly

Livly was founded in 2017 with a mission to create a better relationship between community managers and residents. This Chicago startup provides technology solutions to both property managers and residents. Livly offers residents a mobile app where users can submit rent, book amenities, receive package notifications, request maintenance, and connect with other residents. 

It is also a communication tool for property managers to simplify all tasks regarding apartment management with features like rent payment tracker, visual reporting dashboard, email communication, etc. 

Industry Vertical: Real Estate and Livelihood 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $18M

12. Arturo

Arturo is a one-of-its-kind real estate data analytics company in Chicago. It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep learning to create satellite, aerial, drone, and ground-level images for the real estate industry. Arturo also helps to verify residential and commercial property characteristics. In addition, it uses predictive data analytics to deliver accurate predictions to determine market patterns and minimize risk. 

This Chicago startup supports the insurance industry in North America and has made its presence in Ottawa and Canada in just over three years. AmFam, Kin, and Openly are a few names on its customers’ list. 

Industry Vertical: Artificial Intelligence and Real Estate 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $33M

13. Cameo

Cameo is one of the top startups in Chicago, which has gained immense popularity in a very short time within its marketplace. The idea behind this marketplace is to offer the world a most personalized fan experience. Cameo allows fans to book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite people or celebrities. 

Celebrities can also send personalized video messages to fans who have booked or paid for a custom video message. With its huge celebrity base, this startup is thriving and planning to expand its reach internationally.    

Industry Vertical: Marketplace, Entertainment, and Social Media

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $165.2M

14. BallBox

BallBox focuses on revolutionizing the transfer of goods and its accessibility. This startup provides smart locker-style kiosks that can be used to rent products, manage packages, and distribute products. Moreover, BallBox provides its users with on-demand access to varieties of sports, leisure, and tech products. Users only need to select the items they want on the locker’s touch screen and pay through their credit card. 

BallBox is planning to expand its services to public areas, including hotels, parks, and apartment complexes.

Industry Vertical: Retail

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $120K 

15. Beaxy Exchange

Beaxy Exchange is a new generation trading platform for cryptocurrency management and exchanges. This platform offers portfolio management tools, cutting-edge security, market incentive programs, and technology solutions to crypto-traders. Leveraging the partnership with OneMarketData technology, this startup has successfully developed an engine capable of high-speed data transmission. 

As a result, Beaxy is a best-in-class platform for making the crypto-trading experience convenient for users. This startup also offers military-grade security features through its IP whitelisting process to avoid vulnerability and security threats. 

Industry Vertical: Cryptocurrency and Fintech

Founded Date: 2017

16. bloXroute Labs

bloXroute Labs introduced a blockchain distribution network (BDN) to scale the capability of transactions per second without changing standard protocols. Its BDN propagates data blocks and transactions faster using internal caching, cut-through routing, and optimized topology. 

This startup’s platform also uses a global network of servers, which is optimized for network performance. As a result, it increases the transaction throughput. 

Industry Vertical: Blockchain, CDN, FinTech, and Cryptocurrency

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $20.6M

17. Carlease

The vision of Carlease is to make the car leasing experience stress-free and straightforward. It provides a platform for delivering concierge-level service to help people find the best car to lease as per their budget and needs. This startup automates the processes of finding the desired vehicle at the best rate, dealers and manufacturers incentives, etc. 

Moreover, Carlease aims to deliver cars at the doorstep of users through its end-to-end fleet management platform. 

Industry Vertical: Automotive, eCommerce, and Fleet Management

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $3.5M

18. Clearstep

Clearstep aims to make healthcare easy and accessible for all. This startup built an AI care navigation platform that allows patients to check their symptoms and match them with the right care accordingly. This enables patients to book in-person or virtual care as well. This AI platform was introduced to eradicate people’s bad habits of searching for symptoms on Google assuming the worst whenever they fall sick. With Clearstep, now patients can just describe their symptoms to a chatbot that will recommend some medicines or help them understand the cost of care, schedule a doctor’s appointment, or book online care if needed. 

Its virtual triage solution is being used by digital health providers, payers, and health systems, such as BayCare Health System, DuPage Medical Group, and Hartford healthcare, to provide the right care to their patients. 

Industry Vertical: Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $3.4M

19. Easymove

This Chicago startup brought a technology solution to help consumers and brands in their household moving and delivery needs. Its digital platform makes house or apartment moving, storage management, and delivery of furniture and appliances simple. Easymove also provides last-mile delivery. In addition, users can find on-demand Delivery & Local Movers at affordable cost through its app. 

Consumers are required to request the service they want in the app and mention pick up & drop off location and the budget they can afford. The app also allows users to negotiate with the local movers. After finalizing the amount, users can pay for the service once the job is completed. 

Industry Vertical: Transportation and Livelihood 

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $600K

20. HealthChampion

HealthChampion is a Chicago-based startup that has revolutionized the healthcare ecosystem to provide patients more control over their health records. It is a digital platform that offers personalized plans according to healthcare needs. HealthChampion uses machine learning to create customized health programs for individuals. This is made possible as it gathers health data of the individual from therapists, doctors, hospitals, and medical devices or wearables. 

Individuals can also take care of elderly people or their child’s health using this startup’s tech product. In addition, this startup is offering COVID-19 symptoms monitoring solutions.

Industry Vertical: Healthcare 

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $5M

21. Omega Grid

OmegaGrid brings a new wave in the energy industry by implementing blockchain technology into the existing power infrastructure. This startup has built a blockchain energy platform for utility companies to manage peer-to-peer energy resources. Thus, its software enables power companies to reduce revenue risk, offering grid balancing and market settlement at ease. 

Besides that, OmegaGrid encourages homeowners to invest in solar panels and other renewable energy resources. It also lets homeowners sell the excess energy on the OmegaGrid market, and consumers can purchase it at a rate lower than wholesale price.

Industry Vertical: Cryptocurrency and Energy 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $100K

22. taxProper

taxProper is a platform that automates property tax assessment appeals. This platform provides tools to homeowners in order to save money on their property taxes. taxProper helps resolve the problem of outdated and inaccurate property valuations that homeowners often face while paying taxes. 

To save homeowners from paying additional taxes because of inadequate technology, the founders of this company use taxProper to make the appeals process fair and straightforward. It is made possible as it uses machine learning to correlate data and helps users make informed decisions. taxProper also helps real estate investors collect rent, pay expenses, and identify savings. 

Industry Vertical: Real Estate and FinTech 

Founded Date: 2019

Total Funding Value: $2.2M

23. The Small Exchange

The Small Exchange is a Chicago-based company, which is making the futures market accessible for investors. This startup has maintained its products and services to be of small size to make them manageable and encourage more trading. It’s basically a futures exchange that lets public retail customers execute proprietary futures products, which were once exclusive only to investors. The mission of this startup is to create new trading opportunities via its technology solutions. 

Industry Vertical: Retail and Trading 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $24M

24. Tillable

Tillable helps farm landowners and farmers thrive via its online marketplace. This marketplace aids farmers in finding lands for rent or lease and landowners in managing the farmland. Apart from this, Tillable ensures data transparency, price discovery, unprecedented data access to new lands, and helps with information management for all parties. 

Moreover, it simplifies farm management and offers farmers more financial options to rent farmlands. 

Industry Vertical: Agriculture, eCommerce, and Online Marketplace

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $8.3M

25. Unifyed

Unifyed is a cloud-based AI-powered service provider, offering its solutions to more than 750 colleges and universities in seven countries. It is a microservice-based tech startup developed in partnership with the higher education community by a team from Columbia University. 

Additionally, this information system provider helps colleges and universities increase student enrollment and engagement by offering insightful analytics. Unifyed is also considered an affordable solution that can meet the needs of every institution.  

Industry Vertical: Education

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $5M

26. Valqari

Valqari solves drone and logistic problems with its patented Drone Delivery Station. This delivery station is a smart mailbox that accepts deliveries from drones and autonomous vehicles. It also ensures safe and secure delivery by meeting infrastructure requirements and communication for unmanned delivery vehicles. 

It is a mobile app through which users can digitally sign for the package from any location. What’s more, this startup’s delivery solution issued patents in 13 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Germany, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, South Africa, and several other countries in the European Union.

Industry Vertical: Drones and Logistics 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $4.4M

27. CASHDROP

Cashdrop is a mobile commerce platform for small entrepreneurs to help them in setting up an online store from their smartphone. This startup has made the user experience convenient by enabling businesses to create m-commerce stores without any coding requirements. Furthermore, this platform doesn’t even request any seller fee. Instead, it only charges a convenience fee. CAHSDROP has made several efforts and successfully added hundreds of merchants to its platform by this day. 

Industry Vertical: Mobile-Commerce 

Founded Date: 2020

Total Funding Value: $2.7M

28. High Definition Vehicle Insurance

High Definition Vehicle Insurance (HDVI)  is an insurtech startup in Chicago that provides tech-based insurance services. High Definition Vehicle Insurance was founded to resolve the challenges of the trucking fleet industry with its insurance products and help maintain compliance. A team of insurance, trucking, and technology industry experts with a passion for supporting fleets have come together to help bring next-generation insurance solutions to truckers. 

HDVI offers its insurance solutions with high-quality telematics and an integrated suite of software and support. Users are required to pay only the policy premium to opt for all benefits.

Industry Vertical: Auto Insurance and Fleet Management

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $48.5M

29. NestEgg

NestEgg is a real estate company that helps property owners to manage their rental properties and tenants through its mobile app. It gives busy owners on-demand access to services for property management, maintenance coordination, leasing, etc. It also enhances the tenants’ experience along with landlords with features like auto payments, 24/7 maintenance helpdesk, and easy onboarding. Rent collection is another vital feature of this app that makes the owners’ tasks hassle-free. 

Industry Vertical: Real Estate and Livelihood

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $9.9M

30. Rise Gardens

The mission of Rise Gardens is to inspire people to grow nutritious food at home and thus, has introduced an intelligent indoor hydroponic gardening system. Rise Gardens is an affordable and easy way to grow custom seed pods at home, any time of the year, for reaping beautiful and nutritious vegetables for consumption. 

This startup has created a gardening systems app that helps users track plants’ progress, reminds them when to add water, etc., to make the indoor gardening experience a success. 

​​Industry Vertical: Food Processing and Home-Gardening 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $11.6M

31. Trala

Trala is a mobile application that teaches people how to play the violin. This app offers several video tutorials and daily lessons. It also provides instant feedback on mistakes in the rhythm or pitch through signal processing technology. This technology recognizes the chords and provides feedback accordingly. 

This app has also gained massive success in a very short time, with more than 250,000 downloads. 

Industry Vertical: eLearning and Music 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $4.8M

32. Zing Health

Zing Health is an insurtech company on a mission to provide health insurance options to people aged above sixty-five. This company is putting its effort into solving undeserved traditional healthcare plans. It offers several plans for people eligible for Medicare with treatment expenses and services for hearing, vision, and dental. 

It follows a unique approach that understands patients’ circumstances and offers recommendations through a tech-enabled model to ensure patient health. In addition, it offers personalized plans and helps to identify the right dedicated team who can satisfy healthcare needs. Zing Health is accessible in  Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana.

Industry Vertical: HealthCare and InsurTech

Founded Date: 2019

33. CitrusAd

CitrusAd is a retail advertising platform that helps retailers increase sales by providing sponsored product ads, display ads, and email adverts. It is serving several top retailer brands like Woolworths, pc Components, and Argos. Using CitrusAd services and products, retailers can monetize their online chef space, and suppliers can make more sales. Overall, this company helps retailers and brands grow in a digital space. 

Industry Vertical: Advertisement, E-Commerce, and Retail 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $12.5M

34. The Mom Project

The Mom Project connects talented moms with world-class employers. This company provides a platform to those professionals who are in the dilemma of choosing between family and career. It helps women find flexible work opportunities in small and large or Fortune 500 companies.  Even Serena Williams has joined this startup as a strategic adviser to support its mission to give mothers a chance to find better workplaces.

Industry Vertical: Human Resources and Marketplace 

Founded Date: 2016

Total Funding Value: $115.6M

35. Kalderos

Kalderos redefines the healthcare business model. This startup brings several tools and tech solutions for drug manufacturers, providers, and consumers. Moreover, its SaaS-based solution solves the challenges faced by the U.S. healthcare industry regarding drug discounts. Kalderos also identifies and resolves non-compliance through intelligent algorithms. 

340B Pay is another product of Kalderos, a cloud-based solution to connect providers and drug manufacturers to exchange discounts. It also provides tools for review, request, and verification to help the healthcare industry perform trustable. 

Industry Vertical: Health Care, Pharmaceutical, SaaS

Founded Date: 2016

Total Funding Value: $35M

36. DoltHub

DoltHub is a one-of-its-kind tech startup that offers an open-source database named Dolt. This database is inspired by the features of SQL and Git. It is the only version-control relational database system that supports clone, branch, merge, push and pull, just like a git repository. This company also provides DoltHub to host the Dolt database. It enables users to share the Dolt database with anyone on the Internet and accept or reject changes to the database. This company also provides its users the option of earning money through data bounties. It lets users create, clean, and update the database for a reward with data bounties.

Industry Vertical: Big Data

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $5M

37. Amount

Amount is a fintech startup in Chicago that provides technology solutions to financial institutions to enhance their digital experience. With its omnichannel solution and Point-of-Sale (POS) financing product suite, this startup helps its banking partners go digital in a short time. Furthermore, financial institutions can also optimize their performance through the services offered, including customer acquisition, performance assessments, and risk management. 

Apart from this, it offers customers the flexibility to bank at any time from anywhere. HSBC, Your Bank, and TD Bank are a few financial institutions that leverage Amount to accelerate the banking experience for their customers.    

Industry Vertical: Banking and FinTech

Founded Date: 2019

Total Funding Value: $243M

38. Kaizen Health

Kaizen Health bridges the gap between healthcare and transportation by providing a logistic hub for healthcare providers and patients. Kaizen Health focuses on improving the accessibility to healthcare services. It eliminates the administrative level burden from healthcare service providers and the financial burden from patients. 

Kaizen Health has developed a diversified fleet to enhance the healthcare experience by offering services ranging from ambulance and taxi to courier services between healthcare service providers and patients. 

Industry Vertical: Healthcare and  Transportation

Founded Date: 2016

Total Funding Value: $4.3M

39. Logiwa

Logiwa has built a Warehouse Management Software (WMS) for B2C and DTC businesses to ease the management of warehouses digitally and scale operations. This software solution can quickly connect marketplace and online stores to make warehousing tasks simpler. Moreover, This software can be updated quickly to support dynamic warehouse environments. Founded in 2017 by Cagdas Yildiz and Erhan Musaoglu, this company also helps 3PL and wholesale businesses. 

Industry Vertical: Retail and Supply Chain Management 

Founded Date: 2017

Total Funding Value: $12.5M

40. ModelOp

ModelOP helps large enterprises address governance and scale challenges regarding AI/ML models operations. It offers value for machine learning, analytics, and AI investments. Software solutions provided by ModelOp are aiding many companies in governing, monitoring, and managing automation models of all kinds. 

Several fortune1000 and G2000 companies are using this platform to orchestrate AI/ML models. It is headquartered in Chicago and has offices in Salt Lake City, San Jose, and CA. 

Industry Vertical: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Enterprise Software 

Founded in: 2016

Total Funding Value: $6M

41. Inhabitr

Inhabitr brings technology to the fingertip of users by offering furniture for rent at an affordable price. It is recognized as a go-to platform for furniture purchase, delivery, setup, and pickup. It’s an e-commerce portal that uses AI-powered solutions to offer supply chain benefits. It also provides users with a variety of furniture options to choose from. Furthermore, this platform offers designer-curated furniture in Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth, DC Metro, Madison, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, etc. 

Industry Vertical: eCommerce – Rental 

Founded Date: 2016

Total Funding Value: $4M

42. Provi

With a mission to “connect every tier of the alcohol industry,” Provi helps bars, restaurants, and retailers streamline their business operations. It’s a digital platform that allows distributors, buyers, retailers, suppliers, and bars to simplify the ordering process of alcohol. Through this eCommerce platform, every tier of the alcohol company can manage orders, earn revenue-driving benefits, increase sales, and build brands. 

Industry Vertical: eCommerce, Food and Beverage, and SaaS

Founded Date: 2016

Total Funding Value: $124.9M

43. Genuity

Genuity is the first to help IT businesses and leaders manage their technology spending and navigate the IT market.  This startup offers several tech solutions to level up businesses by assisting them in making informed decisions about the technology associated with critical operations. Using solutions offered by Genuity, IT companies can optimize their IT spend, enhance productivity, increase revenue, manage telecom expenses, and even manage the entire IT infrastructure. 

Industry Vertical: Business Intelligence, SaaS, and IT Management

Founded Date: 2017

44. Black Spectacles

Black Spectacles was created to help architects educate and thrive in their careers. This company provides ARE 5.0 Test Prep + Software Learning, which is the only NCARB-approved online test prep option for all six divisions of ARE 5.0. This platform features online video lectures, virtual workshops, practical exams, and digital flashcards that help architects obtain their license or get hired. Furthermore, users can access free resources also on this platform. 

Industry Vertical: Architecture and EdTech 

Founded Date: 2010

45. Twisted Road

With a vision to redefine the motorcycle industry, Twisted Road is a platform that lets motorcycle enthusiasts and wanderers rent other people’s motorcycles to explore the roads of the world. This platform has gained popularity very soon and has become one of the leading peer-to-peer marketplaces for motorcycles. Twisted Road helps users search the bike as per preferences such as location, budget, and brand. Users can also list their bikes on the portal. Furthermore, riders also get insurance of up to $1M and damage & protection coverage of up to $25K on bikes.

Industry Vertical: Marketplace and Travel

Founded Date: 2017

46. CreditNinja

CreditNinja is a fintech company founded by Mark Friedgan in 2017 to help users borrow money during financial difficulties. CreditNinja is an online lender that offers affordable personal loans to borrowers with low credit scores, unlike most banks. Moreover, users can get a loan in a jiffy. With a few clicks and taps, users can apply, get their loan approved, receive the money and repay it online. CreditNinja has provided around 200,000 loans since its launch.  

Industry Vertical: Financial Services, FinTech

Founded Date: 2017

47. 86 Repairs

86 Repairs is a tech company that provides subscription-based services to manage restaurant equipment repair and maintenance. Restaurants can get 24/7 support from experts and actionable insights to improve back-house operations as well. Overall, it manages the entire service process, from repairing, troubleshooting to equipment maintenance. Jimmy John’s, Sonic, Popeye’s, and Burger King are a few clients of this startup benefiting from its subscription model. 

Industry Vertical: Maintenance Service and Enterprise Software 

Founded Date: 2018

Total Funding Value: $8.8M

48. Tegus

Tegus is a qualitative research platform that provides instantly available expert call transcripts to buy-side investors. Tegus facilitate its users with transcripts of experts, investors’ conversations, and on-demand expert research to help them quickly understand a particular business investment. Moreover, this startup also offers a white-glove service to connect users with top-level experts over a 1:1 custom call at a fair price. 

Industry Vertical: Enterprise Software, FinTech, and Investment 

Founded Date: 2016

Total Funding Value: $1.5M

49. Upkey

Upkey provides online career resources to students free of charge. It has partnered with universities and companies to help students find good jobs in their respective fields. Apart from this, it offers several career tools like Resume Builder, Pitch Coach, Interview Prep, etc., to help students grab better opportunities. 

Students can also find branding services and materials, on-demand services as per professional needs, etc. Upkey thus helps students polish and brand themselves effectively in a competitive market. Through its new Virtual Internship Program, the company has helped more than 15,000 students in the U.S. alone during the covid pandemic.

Industry Vertical: Education and Marketplace 

Founded Date: 2016

Total Funding Value: $3M

50. Ashling Partners

Ashling Partners is an award-winning consulting firm in the global intelligent automation market. With a mission to “empower organizations’ employees to drive efficiency and perform more meaningful work,” this company leverages Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Process Discovery, and targeted Artificial Intelligence. Automation solutions offered by Ashling Partners help businesses improve employee engagement, digitize operations, and drive results. It is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and has branches in the U.S, Romania, and India to help enterprises scale globally.  

Industry Vertical: Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Automation, and Robotics

Founded Date: 2017

Chicago has become the first choice for launching tech startups due to its economic diversity, higher returns, and affordable talent pool. From fintech and cryptocurrency trading to e-commerce, healthcare, and leasing – you can find thousands of startups here serving a diverse set of industries to solve various market needs. You have explored the list of top 50 Chicago startups in this blog that may meet your business requirement. However, if you are still at a crossroads or interested to know more, get in touch with us today.