Over the past few weeks we've learned what it means to be a fire starter, an ember and a clean-energy startup on this year's Inno Fire list.
Now we're getting to our more established startups that are really starting to burn hot and are approaching major milestones in their growth journeys.
The startups featured in our "burning hot" section have reached the Series B stage and beyond, with some — such as Aeropay and Artisight — pulling in new funding and others already making a name for themselves in their respective industries. Growth-stage startups like the ones on our list are ready to scale.
For the rest of Chicago Inno's Fire Awards, including our "fire starters," "embers," "clean energy" and "ready to explode" categories, check out the full list.
The 12 startups in this category have all made major headlines in the past year and will be featured at our Chicago Inno Fire Awards later this month. Some of Chicago's strongest fundraisers over the past year have been in health-tech, software and logistics, among other industries.
Here are Chicago Inno's 2024 Fire Awards "burning hot" winners:
Founder Daniel Muller thinks it was Aeropay's healthy finances and strong revenue growth that led to a favorable fundraising environment for the Chicago-based fintech startup, he told Chicago Inno in May. Aeropay, an account-to-account payment provider, plans to grow its Chicago team in 2024 after landing $20 million in Series B financing led by Los Angeles-based fintech venture capital firm Group 11.
Chicago health care tech startup Artisight completed its Series B funding to begin the year, which included new strategic and client health system investors as well as full participation from Series A investors. The startup and its Smart Hospital Platform — which aim to identify workloads and workflows of clinicians and caregivers to try to figure out which could be augmented through the use of artificial intelligence, ambient sensors, computer vision and natural-language processing — were also selected to participate in the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Program earlier this year.
Founded in 2015, Chicago cryptocurrency startup CoinFlip is known for its bitcoin ATMs and now has more than 4,500 kiosks across 49 U.S. states plus international locations. The company's digital bitcoin/crypto exchange platform, dubbed Olliv, sponsors the NASCAR Chicago street races, and CEO Ben Weiss was named a 2024 Chicago Titan 100.
Chicago-based Dentologie wants to make going to the dentist a little more enjoyable. With primarily millennial clientele, the dental startup reached 10 Chicagoland locations to begin 2024, expanding to the suburbs for the first time with the opening of its Oak Park location following a $25 million Series B raise. The company plans to open as many as 12 more locations and expand into new markets in 2024 and 2025. Founded in 2013, Dentologie aims for accessibility and combines technology with a patient-focused approach that offers contactless check-in and anytime access for dental care.
Access to home-based care is a massive problem in the health insurance industry that Dina hopes to solve. The AI-powered care-at-home platform and network closed on $7 million in new funding in February and is now live in 10 states, with plans to be live in 10 more by the end of the year.
Chicago biotech startup Evozyne raised $81 million in September and expects to focus on maximizing its generative AI platform for drug development and carbon capture over the next three years. The company brought on biotech veteran Marc Yaskowitz as CEO in January.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered on Michigan Avenue, GeoWealth reached more than 100 employees in 2023 with plans for further expansion in 2024. The Chicago fintech startup recently surpassed $28 billion in assets on its Turnkey Asset Management Platform for registered investment advisors, marking a 45% growth rate year-over-year and a 200% growth rate since 2020.
Launched in December 2018, Hallow is now the No. 1 Catholic app in the world. In 2023, the Chicago startup raised a $50 million Series C. The prayer-based app offers audio-guided prayers, meditations, Bible readings and music, and in February appeared on a 30-second Super Bowl ad featuring Mark Wahlberg that aired in 14 major cities.
On the heels of raising a $36 million Series B in May, Honeycomb Insurance, which provides digital insurance for landlords, plans to double its head count of 90 employees to 180 within the next 18 months. Itai Ben-Zaken, co-founder and CEO, said one differentiator for the company, at a time when more startups are taking on bridge financing and closing down rounds, was its consistent growth.
Artificial intelligence is one area where top-tier venture capital firms continue to place their bets, as was the case with Chicago logistics startup Loop. The AI-powered audit and payment platform raised $35 million in a Series B last year, co-led by J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners and Index Ventures. Loop was founded in 2021 by former Uber Freight team members after they continued to see the same pain points in the global supply chain with billing and payments.
Nucleai, a Chicago health-tech startup powered by AI, is hoping to get to clinical trials following a recent raise. The company recently pulled in $14 million in new funding, led by M Ventures, bringing the startup's total funding to date to $60 million. The Series B extension will allow Nucleai to deploy its AI-powered spatial biomarker technology and deploy its platform to patients for clinical trials.
Data analytics platform Ocient secured nearly $50 million in add-on funding in 2024, bringing its total investment capital raised since its founding to $119 million. The company's products and services enable organizations to analyze an ever-accelerating amount of data in their respective industries.
Meet these honorees and more at Chicago Inno's first in-person Fire Awards event since 2019, to be held Tuesday, Aug. 27, at TeamWorking by TechNexus. There we will also reveal the Blazer winners, the "blazing hot" startups and other honorees that stood out in each category.
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