Chicago Inno highlighted 50 of Chicago's most exciting startups, corporations and investment firms with its 2022 Inno Fire Awards released earlier this month.
The list is designed to honor the local startups that have had major successes in the past year, and are poised to keep the momentum going in 2023. Many of the companies featured on this year's list landed major funding rounds, launched disruptive products and made other big moves in 2022.
Now we've chosen one company from each of the Inno Fire Awards' five categories as our Blazer winners, selected by Inno staff with input from the local tech community.
Check out our 2022 Fire Awards Blazer winners:
Supporters
MHub, Chicago’s incubator for hardtech and physical products, celebrated its five-year anniversary in 2022. And what a year it was. By March, mHub startups reached the $1 billion mark in capital raise, and in September, the incubator closed its first venture fund: the Product Impact Fund I. The $15 million fund, raised across 79 limited partners — mainly individual investors and some institutions — will focus on solving some of the world's biggest challenges in climate, energy, advanced manufacturing and health care. We're also keeping a close eye on the future home of the hardtech incubator. Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently proposed a new $46 million headquarters on the Near West Side through Tax Increment Financing (TIF) assistance. MHub would use up to $17.55 million in TIFs to help renovate a 96-year-old, 79,000-square-foot building on Asland Avenue.
B2B
Rheaply is helping make Chicago's business community a little more green. More than 20 metric tons have been diverted from landfills through Rheaply, a resource-sharing network that helps organizations recycle and source items. Led by Garry Cooper, the company closed a $20 million funding round in June and has reached $30 million in venture capital raised since it launched in 2016. Rheaply acquired the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development in October and has continued to rake in the accolades across Chicago tech as 2022 comes to a close, including the Industry Disrupter Award at 1871's 2022 15th annual Momentum Awards.
B2C
Foxtrot is quickly becoming one of the most visible growing startups in Chicago. Founded in 2014, Foxtrot first launched as a delivery app created to modernize and elevate the nostalgic corner-store experience with local purveyors, trending brands from around the world and quick delivery. It has since opened multiple brick-and-mortar locations across the city and country. The Chicago startup doubled its footprint in the last year and by the end of 2022 will have 26 physical locations, including its most recent opening in Austin. Foxtrot closed $100 million in Series C funding this year, bringing total funding to $160 million. Its goal is to open 100 total locations by the end of 2024.
Health care
Tempus, Chicago's most valuable tech startup with an $8.1 billion valuation as of October, raised $275 million in equity and debt earlier this year and has now raised more than $1.3 billion in total. With around 1,700 employees, the startup, led by Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky, uses machine learning and genomic sequencing to better understand cancer tumors. Tempus' AI-enabled platform produces results that can be contextualized for each patient, which helps physicians personalize their treatment. The company also added Kate Sasser as its chief scientific officer in October.
Deep tech
LanzaTech made big news in November when it was selected by Britain's Prince William as one of 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize. While the Chicago-based cleantech company was ultimately not selected for the global environmental prize, it still carries plenty of momentum heading into 2023 in a sector that some think Chicago is poised to become a leader in. Founded by CEO Jennifer Holmgren, develops carbon recycling technology that converts carbon waste into sustainable fuels and chemicals. LanzaTech has worked with companies like Unilever, L'Oréal, Lululemon and Indian Oil to develop everyday products such as a new laundry detergent pods. The Chicago cleantech firm went public earlier this year in a merger with a special purpose acquisition company that valued the business at $2.2 billion.
