Chicago: The Ones to Watch

Startups, scaleups and selected public or acquired companies with local product-building teams. Chicago and the surrounding metro area. Curated by Cosign and listed alphabetically.

ActiveCampaign
Marketing automation and customer messaging software
ActiveCampaign combines marketing automation, customer data, and AI tools, helping businesses coordinate personalized communications and follow customer relationships across channels.
Cosign
CookUnity
Chef-prepared meals delivered weekly
Forty-three million meals from eight kitchens show chef-made food can reach people far beyond a restaurant’s tables.
Cosign
M1
Build and Your Wealth.
M1 combines automated investing with savings and borrowing tools, letting customers organize their financial accounts and automate investment choices through one platform.
Cosign
project44
Movement is the AI-powered Decision Intelligence Platform for the modern supply chain.
project44 connects supply-chain data with shipment visibility and AI tools, helping logistics teams monitor freight, anticipate disruptions, and coordinate responses.
Cosign

Affirm
Pay over time with no late fees or hidden surprises.
Affirm helps shoppers pay over time and merchants offer installment options, connecting checkout, underwriting, and consumer payment tools in one financing platform.
Cosign
EeroQ
Quantum computing with electrons on helium and CMOS chips
An autonomous quantum-lab demonstration tests whether AI can accelerate the experiments needed to build better computers.
Cosign
Mashgin
3D AI checkout technology for retailers.
Mashgin uses computer vision to identify multiple items at checkout, helping retailers process purchases without scanning individual barcodes or changing existing payment systems.
Cosign
Rhaeos
Wearable thermal sensors designed to assess hydrocephalus shunt flow noninvasively within minutes.
New sensors are in clinical studies, aiming to check brain-fluid drainage without turning every concern into an invasive investigation.
Cosign

Cardiosense
Noninvasive cardiac sensing and heart-pressure analysis for clinicians.
FDA authorization opens a route to estimating heart pressure without a catheter, making an important heart-failure measurement easier to access.
Cosign
Groupon, Inc
Local deals that bring customers and merchants together.
Groupon connects consumers with local experiences and offers, giving merchants a marketplace for reaching customers across dining, entertainment, wellness, and travel.
Cosign
NinjaTrader
Futures brokerage and integrated trading tools for charting, strategy testing, and execution across devices.
Germany and Netherlands launches take its futures offering beyond its original market, building on its new home within Kraken.
Cosign
Rowan
Preparing industrial businesses for sale and managing transactions through closing.
Completed industrial-business sales put its tools behind real ownership transitions, a consequential moment for owners and the companies they built.
Cosign

Celadyne
Proton exchange membranes for fuel cells and electrolyzers.
Testing membranes that could make hydrogen equipment last longer, tackling a cost problem that chemistry alone cannot ignore.
Cosign
Loadsmart
AI-native TMS logistics platform for transportation management, dock scheduling, and yard management.
Loadsmart combines transportation software, dock scheduling, AI automation, and freight expertise, helping shippers coordinate the freight lifecycle across connected operational systems.
Cosign
NuCurrent
Wireless power architectures and reference designs for connector-free devices.
WHOOP and Logitech already use its technology. The broader bet is devices that can shed charging connectors without sacrificing usefulness.
Cosign
ShipBob
Technology-powered fulfillment for ecommerce brands.
ShipBob combines fulfillment software with a warehouse network, helping ecommerce businesses manage inventory, ship orders, and coordinate deliveries across sales channels.
Cosign

Civis Analytics
An all-in-one analytics and AI platform for building data pipelines, accelerating data science, and measuring program impact.
Civis Analytics combines managed data infrastructure, analytics, and AI tools, helping organizations build pipelines, analyze information, and deploy reports without maintaining separate systems.
Cosign
LogicGate
Connected governance, risk and compliance workflows.
Its next push puts agents inside risk and compliance work, where growing obligations still create mountains of manual review.
Cosign
Numat
Precision metal-organic frameworks for safer gas delivery, chemical filtration, and protective materials.
A Milliken deal takes its molecular materials into protective clothing, extending precise chemical filtration from industrial systems to what people wear.
Cosign
Sibel Health
Wearable sensors and software for continuous patient monitoring
A seventh FDA clearance backs its push to make continuous monitoring easier to wear and use beyond bulky bedside equipment.
Cosign