CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[Justin_Chicago]

Northwestern drug spinout gets a big pile of cash

Evanston-based drug startup Aptinyx raised another $70 million to continue development of pain medication.

Aptinyx is the followup to a successful drug-development company, Naurex, which sold two years ago to Allergan for $560 million after developing treatments for depression. Both companies are based on the work of Northwestern researcher Joseph Moskal.

The investment was led by Bain Capital and included Adage Capital, Agent Capital, HBM Healthcare Investments, Nan Fung Life Sciences, Partner Fund Management and Rock Springs Capital, as well as previous backers.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...ses-70-million

[Chi-Sky21]

Chicago will be getting another HQ, FTD companies will be opening HQ downtown to 1 N Dearborn, it will keep its office out in Downers Grove also though.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

Chicago will be getting another HQ, FTD companies will be opening HQ downtown to 1 N Dearborn, it will keep its office out in Downers Grove also though.

Any source for this info?

[Chi-Sky21]

My CEO. 8)

[Justin_Chicago]

Food data company lands $21 million in funding

Label Insight, a Chicago company that's at the crossroads of Big Data and Big Food, raised $21 million to keep growth humming.

The company gathers data on the ingredients in various food products, everything from preservatives to packaging. Since 2008, it has amassed a database that now includes more than 400,000 products and 200,000 bits of information about various attributes related to them. It sells that data via subscription to a dozen retailers, such as Target; more than 25 packaged-food and consumer-products companies such as PepsiCo, Conagra and Unilever; as well as market researchers Nielsen and Catalina.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...ion-in-funding


Legal-software startup raises $2.4 million

Heretik, which makes legal software for reviewing contracts, has raised $2.4 million.

The company, launched a little over a year ago, uses algorithms to help law firms review contracts more efficiently. It's an application built on top of Relativity, a software platform used by law firms to handle documents and discovery information electronically.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...tartup-heretik

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Chi-Sky21

My CEO. 8)

Awesome! Any idea how many jobs will be moving?

[Chi-Sky21]

No numbers yet. But the C level suites, marketing and web ops/dev groups.

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ Hope your job gets moved! 1 N Dearborn would be an attractive place to work. You can live anywhere in the city if you work there.

[Justin_Chicago]

I see FTD has job postings, including Corporate Finance positions, on Built In Chicago.


Tovala Raises $9.2M Led By Early Grubhub Backer Origin Ventures

Tovala announced Monday that it has raised a $9.2 million Series A round led by Origin Ventures. Other investors in the round include the Pritzker Group, Y Combinator, Morningstar Founder Joe Mansueto, Levy Restaurants Co-Founder Larry Levy, and the University of Chicago, which invested in the round as part of its new UChicago Startup Investment Program.

Tovala makes a countertop smart oven that uses a combination of steam, baking and broiling to create restaurant-quality meals right from your home. The oven scans the barcode of a Tovala-delivered meal, and pulls data from the cloud to know how exactly to cook the meal, switching between the three cooking methods. The food cooks in less than 20 minutes, and users get a notification to their phone when food is ready. Tovala retails for $399, but customers can also buy it for just $199 if they commit to 24 meal deliveries over 12 months. Tovala’s prepared meals cost $12 each.

Article: https://www.americaninno.com/chicago...igin-ventures/

[bnk]

Those 2016-2017 census numbers are crushing. With the new Trump tax cuts not allowing deductions in state and local taxes the blue states and cities are really going to take it hard, until hopefully in 2020 the Dems win back the WH.

In the mean time if something big does not turn up, [Amazon], or around [ the slowing of the exodus] the 2020 census is going to be ugly.

Welcome to the sixth largest state in the Country, Illinois.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by bnk

Those 2016-2017 census numbers are crushing. With the new Trump tax cuts not allowing deductions in state and local taxes the blue states and cities are really going to take it hard, until hopefully in 2020 the Dems win back the WH.

In the mean time if something big does not turn up, [Amazon], or around [ the slowing of the exodus] the 2020 census is going to be ugly.

Welcome to the sixth largest state in the Country, Illinois.

What’s there to do?

Black people are leaving, immigration has slowed, automation has shrunken the workforce. Lower wages and fewer regulations are taking jobs elsewhere. Let’s not forget that Illinois might be the only major blue state that is surrounded by 2 relatively more “red” states, with the borders both being right next to Chicago.

But sheer population numbers will never tell the whole story, no matter how much the Crawford types want to spin it as negatively as possible.

Wealthy household growth is on fire, we have some of the highest education attainment in the country, and basically the biggest central area boom in the country—excluding NYC. The whole region is undergoing seismic changes—some fantastic and worthy of some of the world’s greatest cities, and some catastrophic. The latter seems to be winning in regards to sheer population numbers, but we will simply have to ride it out, learn from it, and do our best with our present situation.

[left of center]

Heard it on the radio today. We recently-ish took the 5th spot from Pennsylvania too (in the 2000 census IIRC). The politicians in Springfield really need to get their act together and make the state more business friendly and stop constantly raising taxes. Getting more jobs here is the only way to consistently grow the state's population.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

What’s there to do?

Black people are leaving, immigration has slowed, automation has shrunken the workforce. Lower wages and fewer regulations are taking jobs elsewhere. Let’s not forget that Illinois might be the only major blue state that is surrounded by 2 relatively more “red” states, with the borders both being right next to Chicago.

But sheer population numbers will never tell the whole story, no matter how much the Crawford types want to spin it as negatively as possible.

Wealthy household growth is on fire, we have some of the highest education attainment in the country, and basically the biggest central area boom in the country—excluding NYC. The whole region is undergoing seismic changes—some fantastic and worthy of some of the world’s greatest cities, and some catastrophic. The latter seems to be winning in regards to sheer population numbers, but we will simply have to ride it out, learn from it, and do our best with our present situation.

Agree. People who think that population is the end all be all and don't look deeper do not have a good understanding of economics usually. There's a ton of factors that contribute to the overall health of something. I can't speak for the rest of Illinois, but the Chicago area is not declining when looking at various things. It's important to be educated on what actually matters - unfortunately most people aren't so it's easy to sell people doom and gloom.

[F1 Tommy]

That's very true. And when the national media only reports bad news about Chicago that makes it even worse. Could that partly be due to most media being based in NYC??

Having said that, the state needs to get its self together. The Democrats and some Republicans in this state seem to think the answer to everything is raising taxes. It's driving people out. You can find a job here if you look. Go to Arizona or many other sunbelt states and it won't be as easy to find full time work for the average person.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by F1 Tommy

That's very true. And when the national media only reports bad news about Chicago that makes it even worse. Could that partly be due to most media being based in NYC??

Having said that, the state needs to get its self together. The Democrats and some Republicans in this state seem to think the answer to everything is raising taxes. It's driving people out. You can find a job here if you look. Go to Arizona or many other sunbelt states and it won't be as easy to find full time work for the average person.

The population decline in Illinois isn't really an issue with Chicagoland, it's much more an issue with the 80-90% of the state which ISN'T Chicagoland. It's the fact that many of the small cities and towns spread throughout the state have been losing population for decades now due to losses in manufacturing jobs, with a possible exception of Springfield simply due to government positions.

Of course, the national media doing little but spread nothing but negativity about Chicago doesn't help the situation, as much of the nation probably thinks of the city as little more than a gigantic crime scene.

Aaron (Glowrock)

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by F1 Tommy

That's very true. And when the national media only reports bad news about Chicago that makes it even worse. Could that partly be due to most media being based in NYC??

Maybe. Maybe not. Most people I know no matter where they're from usually have very good things to say about Chicago if they've actually visited - even people from NYC. Unfortunately the ones who haven't been there have an inaccurate idea about it.

Having said that, the state needs to get its self together. The Democrats and some Republicans in this state seem to think the answer to everything is raising taxes. It's driving people out. You can find a job here if you look. Go to Arizona or many other sunbelt states and it won't be as easy to find full time work for the average person.

The grass is always greener on the other side. The fact is that some taxes in Illinois are definitely not bad. Income tax, which is for a lot of people the biggest tax, is not bad compared to other places - the thing is that Chicago has many jobs where there's not a ton of options to get said jobs in other areas. You have a handful of metro areas to choose from if you are big in finance for example - and at the end of the day, the majority of those areas not only have higher taxes when you calculate everything, but they have higher COL. People who aren't making a TON but are in an industry like that aren't going to magically consider moving to the SF or NYC area because of taxes in Chicago - they are worse in those areas all together. So what are they left with? Not much.

Honestly, as someone who moved away from Illinois - it makes me laugh how much people aren't aware of what's actually out there. Yes of course, move to Texas or Florida if you don't want income tax, though you'll still have high property tax, but as far as major taxes like income tax goes, Illinois is moderate after the next increase. Hell, you'd even be paying more in income taxes if you lived in Georgia (i.e. Atlanta) at a low 6 figure salary than Illinois (i.e. Chicago). I've said it once and I'll say it again - I'll GLADLY take Chicago and Illinois taxes any second over what I"m paying in NYC. If I'm going for the "no income tax" angle then I guess Texas would be nice, but then again I'd have to live in Texas - a state that's car-centric for 99% of everywhere. Not my style - at that point it comes down to what your style is/what you can tolerate.

[left of center]

Outcome Health quits River North HQ deal

Outcome Health has backed out of a big lease for a new River North headquarters as the company tries to overcome a scandal that has knocked it off its high-growth trajectory.

Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/reale...-north-hq-deal


I guess we all saw that coming...

[IrishIllini]

Yeah, no surprise about Outcome...

I think IL's relatively mild tax burden has potential be an asset under the new tax law...if property taxes are kept in check. Now may be the time to look more seriously into a progressive income tax and decreasing our reliance on property taxes?

If we could at a minimum freeze property taxes, Chicago becomes even more affordable compared to peer cities who have both high state and local taxes. Could make Chicago more attractive to people and businesses that are looking for a more progressive big-city environment that doesn't leave them penniless. Once we've frozen property taxes, we can start looking at scenarios to lower them.

I think IL and PA will jockey for 5/6 for a while. I don't foresee either pulling away from the other in the near term. I wish the Midwest took a more regional approach to planning and economic development. There's no reason Illinois and Wisconsin should not partner and promote Chicago and Milwaukee as a partnership. The same approach should be taken with Illinois and Missouri to promote St. Louis. Rauner has awkwardly attempted this, but a formal committee or organization would be a benefit IMO. It's better to get some of the pie than none...

[the urban politician]

States with multiple large cities, instead of a single dominating super city, are probably better off in the population numbers dick-measuring contest

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

States with multiple large cities, instead of a single dominating super city, are probably better off in the population numbers dick-measuring contest

I feel the only states with multiple major cities are California and Texas. Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio arguably have multiple major cities, but they're not on the same level as California and Texas.

What's large? Peoria's metro is about 500k. Metro East is as well is maybe a bit more than that. There's a good bit of life in the quad cities. It doesn't really matter. It's going to be difficult for small town, Illinois to compete in a global economy. Rural counties across the country are seeing their populations decline. I feel our elected officials would be wise to prop up East St. Louis the greater area. We're fairly dependent on Missouri working to improve the QOL in St. Louis first.

It's unfortunate Cairo didn't pan out in southern IL. Maybe it's for the best. I can't imagine what kind of culture would exist in a city spanning across Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri. Guess it would depend what state acted as the anchor of the region.