Chicago tech and startup companies saw a hefty increase in venture capital funding in March, compared to February, culminating in a strong finish to the year’s first quarter.
Over the course of the month, they collectively raised at least $124 million, according to data compiled by Chicago Inno. That’s 67 percent higher than in February, when Chicago tech raised about $74 million.
March’s funding news was led by Tempus, the cancer-fighting startup founded by Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky, which raised a whopping $80 million.
Other sizable fundings were attributed to online furniture retailer Interior Define and Chris Gladwin’s Ocient.
Below are eight Chicago tech and startup companies that raised money in March.
Foxtrot: The startup, which owns and operates corner stores in Chicago, raised a $6 million Series A round led by Fifth Wall, a real estate-focused venture capital firm. Other investors included Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Lerer Hippeau, Collaborative VC, BoxGroup, Maveron, M3 Ventures and The University of Chicago. Foxtrot will use the funding to add more retail locations in Chicago, expand its on-demand e-commerce delivery business and launch retail locations in other markets by 2019.
Hazel Technologies: The company, which has created a packaging insert that helps produce stay fresh longer, raised a $3.26 million Series A round led by Chicago-based S2G Ventures, a food and agriculture venture fund led by Chuck Templeton, the founder of OpenTable. Other investors in the round include Rhapsody Venture Partners, Serra Ventures, Valley Oak Investments and Climate Impact Capital.
Interior Define: The Chicago startup that’s making it easier to buy furniture online, raised $15 million in new funding in a Series B round, led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Fifth Wall. Interior Define said it will use the new funding to grow its brick-and-mortar presence and add new technology to its platform. The startup opened its first shop in Chicago in 2015, and added three new locations in New York, Los Angeles and Austin in 2017. Interior Define plans to add at least two more physical spaces in 2018.
LandscapeHub: The maker of an online marketplace that optimizes the procurement process for nurseries and landscapers, LandscapeHub raised $4.4 million in a seed funding round. The funding was led by Chicago Ventures with participation from Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels and other individual investors. In addition to the seed round, LandscapeHub also secured $1 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank.
Ocient: The company, co-founded by Cleversafe founder Chris Gladwin, raised a $10 million Series A. The tech company is building database and analytics software to help companies better understand the massive amounts of data they are collecting. Ocient is preparing for a future where businesses will be producing trillions of rows of data, and they’ll need a tool like Ocient to quickly and efficiently make sense of it all.
Paro: This Chicago startup, which connects businesses with freelance finance professionals, raised $5 million in funding in a round led by Steve Case’s firm Revolution Ventures. The round also included investments by Global Founders Capital and Tom Williams, a venture investor and founder of BetterCompany. Paro, which launched in 2015, connects companies with freelance finance pros like bookkeepers, accountants and analysts who provide remote, hourly support on-demand.
Seurat Therapeutics: The Chicago biotech startup that’s developing a nasal spray to treat and prevent migraines, with deep roots at the University of Chicago, raised $750,000 in a seed funding round. Investors included both those working for the startup and other outside investors, including Scott Meadow, a professor of entrepreneurship at UChicago’s Booth School of Business, and the UChicago’s Polsky Innovation Fund.
Tempus: The startup, which uses machine learning and genomic sequencing to better understand a patient’s tumor, raised $80 million in a new funding round, bringing the company’s total amount raised to $210 million. Investors in the startup’s latest round include new backers Kinship Trust Company and T. Rowe Price, along with existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Revolution Growth. The latest funding round comes just six months after the startup raised a $70 million round. Crain’s puts Tempus’ valuation now at $1.1 billion, making the startup one of the city’s latest “unicorn” tech companies.
