- Chicago Ventures declares the closing of its third fund at $63 million.
- It plans to target 25 new investments where the average check size ranges from $1.5 million to $2 million.
Mega rounds and high-end IPOs are generally the ones to dominate the headlines. But, all these companies were in their primitive stage of development and working hard to find investors. Today, Chicago Ventures, declared the closing of its third fund – a $63M vehicle that is at work already. Chicago Ventures works with a very well-defined set of criteria when it decides to power the companies and the startups. For instance, it not only powers up the seed-stage startups, it also leads the rounds. The firm plans to target 25 investments among its new fund with an average check size ranging from $1.5 million to $2 million.
So far, it has powered 11 companies using its third funding where it leads 10 of those rounds. These startups include names like CognitOps, CoPilot, Forager, Interior Define, NOCD, OneRail, PreFix, and Ureeka. The firm also focuses on investing in the companies that are based out of traditional spots of Silicon Valley and New York. Among its numerous investments, six of them were for Chicago-based startups, two in Austin, one in Orlando, Florida, and one in Los Angeles. Recently, they opened an office in Austin.
Chicago Ventures takes pride in identifying and powering of overlooked companies. Its inception dates back to 2012 under the premise that the enduring companies could be built “anywhere” and one which is not restricted to working from a “few select area codes”. The firm gave a statement saying, “Only a handful of funds consistently lead seed rounds. Tag-along, momentum-based investing is the norm.” They also said,” The industry’s attention still converges on industries and geographies with rich histories of innovation. We fill these gaps and lead seed rounds before it’s obvious, and serve as active, operationally-involved partners during a company’s earliest days. We invest off the coasts.”
Since its beginning, the portfolio companies that belong to the firm have managed to successfully raise more than $1.5 billion in follow-on capital. Seventeen of the companies from the list have a value of over $100 million. Among these companies, Cameo, business software marketplace G2 and logistics software company project44 form the list. Chicago Ventures closed the second funding in 2016 which includes a $60 million main fund and a $6 million sidecar fund. This time, the firm opted out of the sidecar route. In accordance with this new fund, Chicago Ventures announced the promotion of Peter Christman and Lindsay Knight for partnership. Christman leads the companies that rebuild the old-line enterprise workflow and consumer products. This expansion offers access to care and financial well-being. On the other hand, Knight leads the firm’s post-investment functions, which include talent, business development, and functional best practice sharing.
Chicago Ventures also includes the name, Jackie DiMonte in the team in the form of a new partner. DiMonte hails from Hyde Park Venture Partners. There, she used to lead early-stage investments in the enterprises. DiMonte is based in Austin and happens to be an engineer. In the same location, Chicago Ventures made 10 investments since 2015.