To many, Illinois is a tale of two cities. Or rather, a city and the rest of the state.
Chicago is the economic and population anchor of Illinois. Chicago's metropolitan area accounts for about three-fourths of the state's population and nearly three-fourths of the state's GDP. Greater Illinois, which extends 400 miles into the heartland from the shores of Lake Michigan, is often more referenced for state-level politics, college towns, and farming than business innovation.
But in this day and age, tech and startup success is no longer solely defined by a location on a map. Urbana-Champaign ranks in the top 10 for venture deals per capita, and has a tech ecosystem with direct connections to Silicon Valley. In Bloomington-Normal, the local tech scene is finding ways to make the towns' economy more flexible. In Peoria local startups are connecting with local long standing businesses to drive innovation.
So while there may be a bit more corn in the rest of Illinois compared to Chicago, citizens across the land of Lincoln are growing businesses that aren't confined to a small or mid-sized town.
Though Chicago Inno mostly keeps up with the Chicago's tech ecosystem, we know there is a lot going on outside the city limits. With that in mind, here are the startups we're keeping our eye on that are growing outside of Chicago.
MightyVine, Rochelle
Tomatoes are delicious, nutritious, and really hard to grow year-round, particularly in the harsh Illinois winters. MightyVine is aiming to change that with their 7.5 acre hydroponic farm in Rochelle, Illinois. Since raising a $11 million round to build their first farm, they harvested their first batch of tomatoes in October and are currently supplying local Jewel grocery stores and Midwest Whole Foods.
They also provide tomatoes to local restaurants including Ada St., Fat Rice, Frontera Grill, Lula Café, RPM Steak and RPM Italian, Swift and Sons, and others. Next up they plan to further expand their farm after raising more funds, and eventually their aim is to supply 4.5 million pounds of tomatoes, 52 weeks a year. "Our guiding principle is simple: the best tomatoes are grown closest to home," CEO Gary Lazarski told Chicago Inno. "Instead of being picked green and shipped cross-country, our nearby greenhouse allows us to grow year-round, leave the fruit on the vine until properly ripened and have it on the consumer’s plate the day after it’s picked."
OceanComm, Urbana-Champaign
It is pretty tough to get a wireless signal when you're underwater, but communicating with deep water oil and gas pumps is an important need within the energy industry. With that in mind, OceanComm developed wireless communications that work underwater. They use acoustic waves, much like dolphins and whales, to improve communication. In May OceanComm was named one of the oil and gas industry's most promising technologies.
EIGERlab, Rockford
Where are entrepreneurs and innovators congregating in Northern Illinois? EIGERlab, a coworking and innovation resource hub, based out of Rockford.
Initially launched in 2004 as a business accelerator, incubator, and resource center for anyone interested in starting a company in the region, EIGERlab was acquired by Northern Illinois University last spring, and now has furthered its reach to students and faculty working out of the university. They offer an elevator pitch competition, a center for product development with a 3D printer for manufacturing companies, and just opened a coworking space that can be used by the community and students. They are also affiliated with the new chapter of DMDII that just opened in Rockford, the first UI Lab-launched expansion outside of Chicago.
Agrible, Urbana-Champaign
This predictive analytics company is among the fastest growing in Urbana-Champaign's research park. The company specializes in predictive analytics tools for farmers and growers, and their flagship product is the Morning Farm Report that offers field-specific data and forecasts. In less than a year, Agrible grew from less than 10 employees to a staff of almost 50, and they anticipate growing to 60 by the end of the year. They also raised a $4.1 Million in series A funding round in July, announced a partnership with ADM Crop Risk Services, and launched their free app, Pocket Rain Gauge.
OneFire, Peoria
This "innovation agency" acts like a middle man between traditional companies and the new tech-driven era of marketing and product development. Cofounder Jake Hamman previously worked in advertising and consulting for Caterpillar, developing CGI content around products, and launched OneFire in 2012 to help more companies understand how to use new digital tools, such as augmented reality and touchscreen displays, not just as a gimmick, but to drive their business forward. Since launching, they've grown from two employees to 30, and grew to offer more services such as AR/VR and Internet of Things. OneFire also just launched OneFire Labs, an "idea accelerator" that lets clients and employees develop and iterate their own ventures.
internrocket, Bloomington-Normal
internrocket wants to be sure that everyone finds their dream job, which usually requires a dream internship first. Their service connects students and job seekers with short term internships in various fields so users can test out different career fields and network within different industries as they decide their vocation. Since starting work on the product in 2013, internrocket raised an all-local $350,000 round, grew to 1,700 users and over 130 companies, and 33 percent of interns who have applied through internrocket have been hired.
IntelliWheels, Urbana-Champaign
This wheelchair innovation startup offers geared wheels, ergonomic hand-rim grips (called FitGrips), and just launched a custom wheelchair building platform (Project Tinker). Since launching out of the Cozad New Venture Challenge in 2010, the startup received a $20,000 NCIIA grant, $6,000 from the Cozad competitions, $30,000 from the Lemelson MIT Illinois student prize, a phase I SBIR grant of $165,000 from the National Institutes of Health, a series A funding round of $400,000 of Champaign Urbana angel investors, and finally a $1.5 million in 2014 as a phase II SBIR award for from the National Institutes of Health. Most recently, Intelliwheels won the Champaign-Urbana InnovateHER competition.
Legacy Out Loud, Bloomington-Normal
This recently-launched startup is an initiative to inspire and empower female entrepreneurs. This year they've launched a pilot program with an initial cohort of 14 fellows from 8 colleges and universities, and have a network of about 500 female entrepreneurs and investors involved as ambassadors, mentors, collaborators and partners. Legacy Out Loud recently launched a #DearDaughters campaign that asked fathers to write letters to their daughters encouraging them to be leaders, which hit had a social reach of nearly 2 million on Thunderclap, and they're gearing up to do the same social media campaign with mothers soon.
Launch Digital Marketing, Naperville
Though technically in the Chicago metropolitan area, this marketing startup has grown specifically because they have made a point not to move into the city. Since launching in 2011, they've grown to 120 employees, acquired more than 500 clients (including Honda and Acura) and recently moved into a new 12,000 square-foot office. CEO Joe Chura told Chicago Inno in August that hiring in the suburbs was a recruiting advantage, as they can better cater to the working families in the area and face less competition.
Quicket, Urbana-Champaign
Citations and tickets are frustrating both for citizens and police alike, given the paperwork and bureaucracy involved. Quicket wants to change that, with their cloud-based e-citation platform. It simplifies citations by moving the input to an app, print out a physical ticket, and then digitally share the information with court systems and other agencies. This month Quicket announced it was a winner of the Amazon Web Services City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge, which highlights innovations in the public sector. They also just raised $1 million in funding.
