CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[sixo1]

Okay, I will only post which companies have won the top prize at the Polsky Exchange.

[marothisu]

RedBox Co-Founder’s Fintech Startup Raises $12M

https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/funding-chicago/redbox-co-founders-fintech-startup-raises-12m/

Chicago-based fintech company Halo Investing just raised a new round of funding to help it expand its international footprint.

The startup raised $12 million in a Series B round that included Allianz Life Ventures and William Blair Circle. Halo has now raised more than $15 million since launching in 2015, according to Crunchbase. The startup raised a $4 million Series A round in 2017.

Halo says the new funding will help the startup offer its service in more countries. It currently does business in the U.S., Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

The Halo platform provides structured note investments to the average investor. Halo says it can ensure transparency, competition and price efficiency to all investors. Its clients include investment advisors, brokers, dealers and private banks.

The company was co-founded by CEO Biju Kulathakal, a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Redbox. Kulathakal, an Illinois Institute of Technology alum, is also a venture partner at OCA Venture Partners.

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B2B SaaS Company BigTime Software Raises $14M

https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/funding-chicago/b2b-saas-company-bigtime-software-raises-14m/

Chicago tech company BigTime Software has raised a new round of funding as it grows its B2B billing software business.

BigTime Software announced Thursday that it raised $14 million in a round led by Boston-based private equity firm Wavecrest Growth Partners, with participation from MassMutual Ventures and Migration Capital.

The tech company, which has offices in the Loop, has now raised more than $17 million to date. In 2011, BigTime raised a $2.7 million Series A round from investors, such as Runa Capital and LTC Partners, according to Crunchbase.

Founded in 2002 by University of Chicago alum Brian Saunders, BigTime Software provides its more than 2,000 clients with a platform that allows them to monitor and manage their finances through budgeting, tracking and invoicing.

Saunders said in a statement that BigTime decided to raise this second round of venture capital funding because it was struggling to keep up with the demand for its software. The new financing will be used to add to the company’s executive team, grow its sales and marketing teams, and further develop its software.

[animositisomina]

ARMY AD MACHINE moving to Chicago

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army...chine-is-moving-to-chicago-will-it-work/

A May 30 memo by Secretary of the Army Mark Esper announced the move, which comes after the service awarded a $4 billion contract to DDB Chicago, a full-service ad agency in the city.

The company will be responsible for a range of initiatives intended to build brand perception and drive leads for marketing and recruiting needs led by the Army Marketing and Research Group.

The contract was a big win for the city, with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel hailing it as a “tremendous achievement that brings billions of dollars of investment to Chicago and will support hundreds of good-paying jobs.”

Beginning in August, the Army will start looking at the transition plan, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Emmanuel Ortiz-Cruz told Army Times. That process involves selecting a new building space and moving “under 50” personnel throughout the fall and winter, he said.

“In 2020, beginning next year, that’s when they’re going to be fully operational,” he said. “You have the talent there and you have the new contract with DDB, which it will be co-located near."

[bnk]

Originally Posted by animositisomina

ARMY AD MACHINE moving to Chicago

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army...chine-is-moving-to-chicago-will-it-work/

That's a big contract


the service awarded a $4 billion contract to DDB Chicago, a full-service ad agency in the city.

[the urban politician]

From Bisnow:

Chicago-based design firm Wight & Co. completed the new headquarters for Legacy.com, an online publisher of life memorials and end-of-life resources. The 18K SF space at 230 West Monroe St. in Chicago’s Loop consolidates 100 of Legacy’s employees from two different suburban locations. The Wight design team was led by Janet Lougée, and provided a variety of workspace options, including open desks and common areas along the perimeter of the office with smaller meeting rooms and private phone booths at its center.

Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/chicago/news/deal...?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser

[HowardL]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

From Bisnow:

Chicago-based design firm Wight & Co. completed the new headquarters for Legacy.com, an online publisher of life memorials and end-of-life resources. The 18K SF space at 230 West Monroe St. in Chicago’s Loop consolidates 100 of Legacy’s employees from two different suburban locations. The Wight design team was led by Janet Lougée, and provided a variety of workspace options, including open desks and common areas along the perimeter of the office with smaller meeting rooms and private phone booths at its center.

Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/chicago/news/deal...?utm_source=CopyShare&utm_medium=Browser

That's the right direction. Suburbs are fine for living and fine for services but major employment needs to be centrally located so that it can draw employees from the entire region. By public transit. Into the center.

All of it.

[marothisu]

A little something about another company at the end..

GreatPoint Ventures leads $23 million investment in Spring Labs

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/john-ple...-leads-23-million-investment-spring-labs

Spring Labs, a blockchain company that spun out of Avant, has raised another $23 million.

The idea was to create a platform for lenders and other financial services companies to share information securely and in real time to prevent borrowers from loan stacking—or borrowing from multiple lenders, especially online companies like Avant—before the lenders realize it.

The goal is to build a similar system to what credit reporting bureaus offer, but one that’s less expensive and more secure, which is where blockchain comes in. For now, it’s still unproven at the scale needed by big lenders, but the idea has gotten a lot of interest.

..

John Sun, one of Spring Labs’ co-founders, says the first version of the product will launch with early partners in the coming weeks. He said the company has signed up 25 partners, including Avant, GM Financial, SoFi and OnDeck Capital.

..

The company is based in Los Angeles, though Sun, who was a co-founder of Chicago-based Avant, says many members of the team split time between the two cities. He expects to add staff in Chicago as the company grows from 35 to 50 by year-end.

..

Meanwhile, another California-based startup with Chicago ties raised a large funding round, which will result in more tech jobs here.

SpotOn, a San Francisco-based company that sells software to small and mid-sized retailers, raised $40 million.

The company’s technology team is mostly based in Chicago, where it employs about 35 and plans to double headcount with the new funding, says co-founder Doron Friedman. “Our corporate office is in San Francisco but our tech office is in Chicago."

[marothisu]

A think tank in NYC released a report the other day on the growth of startups in various cities in the US from 2008 to 2018. Following is some data from that:

https://nycfuture.org/research/start-up-tech-growth-in-major-cities-across-the-u.s

Change in startups 2008 vs. 2018:
1. NYC: +9878 startups
2. San Francisco: +7791 startups
3. Los Angeles: +5245 startups
4. Chicago: +2451 startups
5. Austin: +1670 startups
6. Seattle: +1570 startups
7. San Diego: +1261 startups
8. Atlanta: +1174 startups
9. Washington DC: +943 startups
10. Denver: +930
11. Dallas: +893 startups
12. Houston: +842 startups
13. Philadelphia: +563 startups
14. San Antonio: +180 startups

The greater Boston area added 2826 startups (this includes all startups) while Brooklyn alone added 941 startups. The entire Bay Area added 15,048 startups.

For Chicago this averages out to over 200 new startups per year.

Percent change wise it's like this:
1. San Francisco: +421%
2. NYC: +308%
3. Philadelphia: +290% (had less than 200 startups in 2008 though)
4. Los Angeles: +279%
5. Chicago: +270%
6. Washington DC: +235%
7. Seattle: +225%
8. Denver: +224%
9. Dallas: +223%
10. Austin: +221%
11. Atlanta: +186%
12. San Diego: +180%
13. San Antonio: +155%
14. Houston: +149%

Chicago is top 5 here. Philadelphia started with less than 200 startups so to me, LA and Chicago are more impressive in their percentages here. Chicago and Los Angeles have similar growth rates, so that's a good thing at least that they aren't so different in percent change.

In terms of just overall startups in 2018:
1. NYC: 13,089 startups
2. San Francisco: 9642 startups
3. Los Angeles: 7125 startups
4. Chicago: 3359 startups
5. Austin: 2426 startups
6. Seattle: 2269 startups
7. San Diego: 1963 startups
8. Atlanta: 1804 startups
9. Houston: 1409 startups
10. Denver: 1345 startups
11. Washington DC: 1344 startups
12. Dallas: 1293 startups
13. Philadelphia: 757 startups
14. San Antonio: 296 startups

Greater Boston (with suburbs) is at 4111 startups while Brooklyn is at 1205 startups. Chicago is top 5 here

[the urban politician]

A SF based startup that moved to Chicago and is rapidly hiring:

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2019/06/11/bluecrew-chicago-headquarters-growth

An Evanston company that moved downtown:

https://www.rejournals.com/nkf-represent...-relocation-to-downtown-chicago-20190611

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

A SF based startup that moved to Chicago and is rapidly hiring:

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2019/06/11/bluecrew-chicago-headquarters-growth

An Evanston company that moved downtown:

https://www.rejournals.com/nkf-represent...-relocation-to-downtown-chicago-20190611

The SF company moving is a good story and also has been happening quite a bit as we know. One thing I've noticed in this story and some others like it is the people in charge are from the Midwest originally. I'm not sure that some people understand just how many people from the Midwest actually make up the tech scene in the Bay Area, but it's a good amount. As the Bay Area becomes more expensive and companies look to either move from it or make their expansions elsewhere (definitely already happening), Chicago will be more and more attractive to some of those people especially. Obviously this has happened already but I think as long as the tech scene grows in Chicago, more and more companies will take Chicago seriously in their needs for this.

It reminds me of, a little..

Why Alphabet’s Cybersecurity Spin-Out Picked Chicago to Grow Its Engineering Team

https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/inn...ed-chicago-to-grow-its-engineering-team/

A cybersecurity startup born out of Alphabet’s moonshot factory has picked Chicago to grow its engineering operations, and expects its Windy City outpost to be its largest office outside of Silicon Valley.

Chronicle announced last month that it’s opening a Chicago office inside Google’s Fulton Market building. The office is led by James Megquier, a Chicago native who has spent over a decade in various software engineering roles at Google. Will Robinson, the former head of Google Chicago, is Chronicle’s CTO.

..

Chronicle chose Chicago for three main reasons, Megquier said in an interview: access to talent, a growing tech scene, and proximity to major corporations that have cybersecurity needs.

“We’ve got a great tech scene here in Chicago,” Megquier said. “Silicon Valley is really saturated at this point with its talent. In Chicago, things are just growing and growing.”

Megquier declined to say how many people Chronicle’s Chicago office plans to hold, but he described the company as a “rapidly growing startup” that’s looking to hire across a range of engineering roles.

“We see cybersecurity as the computer science problem of a generation,” he said. “This is a problem that’s unsolved … We believe we can bring a really unique perspective and value (to the industry) and are interested in solving it.”

[IrishIllini]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/post-office-nearing-big-lease-cisco-systems

[the urban politician]

https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2019/06/14/silicon-prairie-proptech-firms-catch-fire-in-chicago/

[the urban politician]

Yep, 80% leased when the thing is still a ways from being completed is pretty damn strong leasing.

I'm wagering that Thor and SB both will get started on their next respective towers soon.

[marothisu]

Crisp launches North American HQ in Chicago, plans to make 50 hires in a year

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2019/06/18/crisp-chicago-new-hq

U.K. company Crisp closed a $25 million funding round last October. How’s it celebrating? By coming to Chicago.

On Tuesday, Crisp announced that it’s opening its new North American headquarters in Chicago. The Chicago office will be the home base for Crisp’s North American operations and will help the company expand its business across the world.

Crisp labels itself as a “social media safety” firm. The company has partnered with several Fortune 500 and enterprise-scale companies in order to monitor their social media channels and protect their brand image.

The growing need for this social media protection has led the 14 year-old company to experience 87 percent year-over-year growth in 2018. And Crisp aims to keep this momentum.

Crisp is hoping to add 25 to 30 employees to its new Chicago office in the next three to six months, and approximately 50 in the next 12 months. Worldwide, the company plans to double its employee headcount over the next year.

Chicago proves to be the perfect city for Crisp’s new headquarters, according to the company, thanks to its rapidly growing tech scene and its access to top brands and talent.

Adam Hildreth, the CEO and founder of Crisp, has a special affinity for the city.

“Chicago’s central location, proximity to the Fortune 500 and top tech talent pool made it the obvious choice for Crisp’s North American headquarters,” Hildreth said in a statement. “We want to be the very best partner to our customers, which is why we are eager to capitalize on the incredible resources Chicago provides growing tech companies and the businesses they work with.”

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Boro, which helps young borrowers secure loans, raises $6M Series A

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2019/06/14/boro-6m-series-a

To take out loans, you need good credit. But in order to get good credit, you need to take out loans.

This paradox makes it hard for first-time borrowers to secure their first loan or credit card without getting taken advantage of by lenders.

Boro is trying to make getting that first loan easier, and it just closed a $6 million Series A to do so.

Boro is an online lending platform that specializes in providing loans to college students and other young applicants who have trouble getting a solid FICO credit score. Instead, the company assesses creditworthiness using a machine learning algorithm that looks at an individual’s financial status and future earning potential.

The Series A brings Boro’s total funding to $8.6 million. The company is based in Chicago, but it's looking to use these funds to expand across the country. The company is currently hiring for a range of roles including in marketing and engineering.

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Healthtech company Collective Health closes massive $205M funding round

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2019/06/18/collective-health-205m-funding-round

This new round of funding will help the company grow even more. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Chicago and Lehi, Utah. A spokesperson for Collective Health told Built In that it’ll expand its workforce in all three of its offices, including Chicago.

The company is currently hiring roles for its sales, engineering and customer experience teams.

[the urban politician]

More info about all of the higher ed goodies the State is doling out with the new budget:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/education/major-gains-chicago-more-higher-ed-spending

[bnk]

Some signal of industrial slowness. No layoffs yet. One of four furnaces will idle. No timetable when it would restart.



https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/...bae982b-0cd4-5120-ab0e-0fe1c6ce6347.html




U.S. Steel to idle blast furnace at Gary Works


U.S. Steel plans to temporarily idle a blast furnace at Gary Works as it looks to reduce production capacity amid falling steel prices, orders and revenue.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, one of Northwest Indiana's largest employers, said the idling of one of the three south blast furnaces at its flagship steel mill on the Gary lakefront was only temporary, but it had no timeline for bringing the furnace back online. The company did not immediately return a request for information about whether employees would be laid off or furloughed.

A memo sent to steelworkers said that there would be no immediate impact on employment levels at the mill, but that the company is "mindful of the impact these announcements have on employees and their families."

Gary Works operates three other blast furnaces, which convert iron ore and other raw materials into the pig iron that's turned into steel for cars, appliances and countless other products.

U.S. Steel also plans to leave the Great Lakes B2 blast furnace near Detroit idled after the completion of a planned maintenance outage that started last week.

As a result of the idlings, the company expects to reduce blast furnace production capacity of pig iron by 200,000 to 225,000 tons a month starting in July.

"If both furnaces remain idled for the remainder of the year, we expect full year flat-rolled shipments to third-party customers to be approximately 11 million tons," the company said in a news release announcing the idling. "We will resume blast furnace production at one or both idled blast furnaces when market conditions improve."

The company also plans to idle a blast furnace in Europe that has a production capacity of 125,000 tons a month. It will cut production by 3.6 million tons if it remains idled for the year.



…

. "Additionally, second quarter shipments are lower than we expected due to flooding in the southern United States, which has limited the availability of barges and our ability to ship finished product to customers over the past few weeks.

...

[bnk]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/manufacturing/ford-unveils-1-billion-upgrade-chicago-plant

June 24, 2019 02:40 PM | 18 hours ago



Ford unveils $1 billion upgrade at Chicago plant



The automaker has added new equipment and hired 500 people across its plants on Torrence Avenue and in Chicago Heights.



Ford has finished a $1 billion renovation at its two Chicago-area plants, adding 600 robots, 3-D printers and improved employee amenities.

The Torrence Avenue assembly plant and Chicago Heights stamping plant build the bestselling Ford Explorer, as well as its law enforcement cousin, the Police Interceptor. The plants also are building the new 2020 Lincoln Aviator.

Ford reworks plants to build more SUVs with same headcount


As part of the revamp, Ford hired 500 new workers between the Torrence Avenue assembly plant and the Chicago Heights stamping plant, bringing the total to about 6,500, including salaried employees. The popularity of the Explorer has the Chicago plant running three shifts, 24 hours a day.


...

[bnk]

Finally an international acquisition, not a suburban relocation. Three years ago Pfizer was willing to pay 160 Billion dollars for Allergen but the deal broke down.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/c...25-vzadftyzpvbpngkrcienrqxt7a-story.html


Illinois-based drugmaker AbbVie to buy rival Allergan in $63 billion ‘transformative’ deal


Lisa Schencker



| Chicago Tribune |

Jun 25, 2019 | 11:57 AM




AbbVie headquarters are seen in north suburban Abbott Park in 2014. On June 25, 2019, the company announced it is buying Allergan in a cash-and-stock deal valued at around $63 billion. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)



North Chicago-based drugmaker AbbVie is buying Botox-maker Allergan for $63 billion in cash and stock — a deal designed to reduce AbbVie’s reliance on its blockbuster medication Humira, which will soon face competition in the U.S.



AbbVie said it will pay $188.24 per share in cash and stock for Dublin-based Allergan, representing a 45% premium to Allergan’s closing share price Monday. AbbVie’s headquarters will remain in North Chicago, and its CEO Richard Gonzalez will lead the combined company.



The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020, pending regulatory approval. The acquisition could create the fourth-largest biopharmaceutical company in the world, Gonzalez said.

...


Gonzalez said the acquisition is expected to yield $2 billion in annual cost savings by its third year, partly through “elimination of redundant infrastructure.”



AbbVie spokeswoman Adelle Infante said after the call that all of the operations now in North Chicago are expected to stay in North Chicago. She said she couldn’t comment on whether the combination might lead to layoffs or relocation of Allergan jobs or operations to the Chicago area....



AbbVie spun off from north suburban Abbott Laboratories six years ago and has about 30,000 employees worldwide.



...

Tuesday's announcement isn't the first time AbbVie has gone after an Irish drug company.

...













https://www.irishtimes.com/business/heal...uartered-allergan-in-63bn-deal-1.3936938

AbbVie to buy Irish-headquartered Allergan in $63bn deal

Deal is expected to add 10% to adjusted earnings per share over the first full year


about 6 hours ago

Allergan is headquartered in the Republic of Ireland


Drugmaker AbbVie, which employs 600 people locally, said on Tuesday it would buy Botox-maker Allergan for about $63 billion, grabbing control of by far the biggest name in medical aesthetics to help reduce its reliance on blockbuster arthritis treatment Humira.

AbbVie has been under pressure to diversify its portfolio as Humira, the world’s best-selling drug, faces competition from cheaper versions in Europe.

Allergan chief executive Brent Saunders put together the current version of the company through a series of deals to roll up several pharmaceutical firms in 2014, and has run the company since then.

He built his reputation as a dealmaker, but his company has struggled since Pfizer walked away from a $160 billion deal to buy Allergan, which employs about 1,700 people in the Republic, in 2016.


...

[the urban politician]

Another crypto exchange opening a local office, and a British fintech company opening their US HQ here:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/finance-banking/cryptocurrency-exchange-gemini-expands-chicago

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2019/06/26/smart-group-opens-us-headquarters-chicago

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Another crypto exchange opening a local office, and a British fintech company opening their US HQ here:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/finance-banking/cryptocurrency-exchange-gemini-expands-chicago

Gemini is one of the big exchanges so that's pretty good news. The founders of course created ConnectU, before Facebook, and then sued Mark Zuckerberg over it back in 2004 for stealing their idea. They got $65M out of that and are billionaires now.

https://www.builtinchicago.org/2019/06/26/smart-group-opens-us-headquarters-chicago

Not bad for a company only a few years old. Hopefully they are good and expand in Chicago a bit.

Speaking of expanding to Chicago..

On-Demand Staffing Startup BlueCrew Growing Chicago Presence After Relocating from San Francisco

https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/chi...nce-after-relocating-from-san-francisco/

As more and more coastal tech companies are betting on Chicago as a city where they can flourish, a San Francisco on-demand staffing company is hiring dozens of people in the Windy City after relocating its headquarters to Chicago earlier this year.

BlueCrew, founded in 2015, operates an on-demand job platform for applicants looking for low-skilled jobs, such as movers, cash register operators and forklift drivers. The tech company announced that it was moving from its home of San Francisco to Chicago in March, and it now employs more than 30 people in its offices inside the Merchandise Mart.

BlueCrew CEO Adam Roston said the company chose to relocate its headquarters to Chicago because of the city’s large industrial market, its growing tech talent pool and because the cost of living is cheaper in Chicago than in other tech hubs, like the Bay Area or New York.

“As we started growing, we realized that San Francisco wasn’t a great long-term home for BlueCrew,” said Roston, who joined the company as CEO in March. “It’s a competitive area for hiring and retaining talent, and it’s also not a great industrial and commercial market because it’s so expensive to be there.”

When BlueCrew opened its Chicago office, former mayor Rahm Emanuel was there to cut the ribbon. At the time, the city said that BlueCrew was joining a group of more than 80 technology companies that have or have pledged to relocate to Chicago or grow their footprint in the city.

Fintech company Tegus also relocated their headquarters from San Francisco to Chicago in March.


..

“Everyone knows there’s a lot of talent in San Francisco, Seattle, L.A. and New York, but there’s just as great of talent in Chicago,” Roston said. “There’s tons of great universities around here and it attracts a lot of talent from around the Midwest.”

Since opening the new Chicago office, BlueCrew has been on a hiring spree, saying it plans to fill 100 new roles across engineering, operations, customer support and finance roles over the next year.

--


Fast-Growing Suburban Software Firm Vistex Opens Chicago Office

https://www.americaninno.com/chicago/inn...ftware-firm-vistex-opens-chicago-office/

I believe they are going to open up a larger West Loop office..

Following a large round of funding earlier this year, Hoffman Estates-based software maker Vistex is opening a new office in downtown Chicago.

Vistex announced Wednesday that it’s opening an 8,000-square-foot office space at 1 E. Wacker Drive. The office plans to hold 50 new employees in sales, marketing and engineering roles.

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Also Livongo Health filed for its IPO - though it's technically based in Mountain View, CA. The CEO, Glen Tullman, is based in Chicago..