The Chicago Venture Summit, an annual event for venture capitalists to connect with the city’s startups, will return this fall after being canceled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The two-day event, hosted by World Business Chicago and ChicagoNEXT, is scheduled for Sept. 28-29 at 167 Green St. in Fulton Market.
The 645,000-square-foot office building is home to the corporate offices of CCC Information Services and Foxtrot, as well as a WeWork location.
While the event will be fully in-person, people can still register online for a virtual experience.
In years past, the event has taken place at Google’s Chicago office in Fulton Market and at Venue Six10 in the Loop, and attracted high-profile investors and entrepreneurs like Travis Kalanick, Peter Thiel, Don Thompson and Ben Horowitz. Former mayor Rahm Emanuel also usually made an appearance as the event was created during his tenure.
A portion of ticket proceeds from this year’s Chicago Venture Summit will be donated to City Colleges of Chicago’s Tech Launch Pad, Chicago:Blend, TechRise, The Grey Matter Experience, and Women Tech Founders.
In addition to the venture summit, the M25 Summit will return this fall as a fully in-person event from Sept. 30-Oct. 1. M25, a Chicago-based venture capital firm, recently raised a $31.8 million fund to invest in Midwest startups.
Other startup and VC-focused events this fall include the fully virtual Midwest.tech/connect event, hosted by Chicago VC firm Sandalphon Capital. It is scheduled for Sept. 13-14. The last event, which took place in March, facilitated over 5,000 connections between approximately 750 startups and hundreds of investors.
“Given our city’s recent reopening, as well as the ever-growing number of investors choosing to support our city and our entrepreneurs, 2021 will truly be the best year for Chicago’s thriving startup and VC ecosystem,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a statement. “I am thrilled to welcome investors to our city this fall to find their next big deal with our local entrepreneurs and innovative startups.”
Chicago startups raised $2.8 billion in 2020 and have already surpassed that figure in 2021, raising more than $3 billion, according to an analysis by Chicago Inno.
