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Chicago

Metro area · United States · Pop. 10M · #23 city by EV

A public taster of the full Chicago ecosystem on Dealroom — request a demo for live deal flow, founder pedigrees, AI-talent maps, and the full cap table for every company below.

2,002 Pool of Funded Startups

New Startups

545 Annual Startups FoundedAll new ventures

177 Annual Startups FundedReceived investment

get funded 33%

1,503Startups

586 Pre-Seed Startups$100K–1M

484 Seed Startups$1–4M

Pre-Seed to Seed 34%

433 Series A Startups$4–15M

Seed to Series A 31%

390Breakouts

246 Series B Breakouts$15–40M

A to Series B 34%

144 Series C Breakouts$40–100M

B to Series C 48%

109Scaleups

75 Mega Scaleups$100–250M

reach Mega 3.7%

34 Mega+ Scaleups$250M+

reach Mega+ 1.7%

54Valuation Outcomes

49 Unicorns($1–10B valuation)

reach Unicorn 2.4%

5 Decacorns($10–100B valuation)

reach Decacorn 0.25%

Pre-Seed

586

Seed

484

Series A

433

Series B

246

Series C

144

Unicorn

Decacorn

* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.

Quarterly report

Chicago's latest quarter in venture capital

VC raised by Chicago-headquartered companies in the quarter shown, against the quarter before and the same quarter a year earlier.

Latest complete quarter

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Largest rounds

Largest funding rounds in Chicago

A live treemap of the largest VC rounds. Each cell is one round into Chicago-headquartered companies, grouped by Dealroom sector.

Largest rounds in Chicago - 2026

Every $15M+ VC round into Chicago-headquartered companies in 2026, grouped by Dealroom sector.

- rounds · - raised

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VC investment

How much venture capital flows into Chicago

VC investment into Chicago-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.

Academia

Chicago's academic flywheel

Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to Chicago.

University-linked startup formation

176

University spinouts

3,712

Total alumni-founded companies

2,184

Of which startups (<$15M raised)

1,111

Breakouts ($15M-100M)

417

Scaleups ($100M+)

Top universities producing founders tied to Chicago

🇺🇸 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL · 48 alumni unicorns

Notable alumni-founded: PayPal (co-founder)YouTube (co-founder)Yelp

Unlock the full university ranking for Chicago on Dealroom

Location comparison

How Chicago stacks up

Compare Chicago with peers from the same country (United States) — switch between combined EV, EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.

Los Angeles

$911B

Miami

$690B

San Diego

$332B

Chicago

$266B

$263B

$224B

$144B

$136B

$136B

Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.

Top cities in United States ranked by combined EV. Chicago's row is highlighted (#9).

#	Ecosystem	Combined EV	EV growth	Unicorns	VC invested	Tracked startups
1	Bay Area	$20.3T	9.7×	886	$157B	24.5K
2	Seattle	$2.9T	30.2×	70	$6.8B	2,947
3	Austin	$2T	22.1×	61	$7.8B	2,679
4	New York City	$1.6T	5.3×	328	$32.6B	16.6K
5	Boston	$1.2T	5.1×	209	$12.9B	6,293
6	Los Angeles	$911B	4.6×	163	$17.3B	8,638
7	Miami	$690B	12.3×	43	$2.9B	2,914
8	San Diego	$332B	5.3×	63	$3.4B	2,214
9	Chicago	$266B	3.3×	54	$2.2B	2,808
10	Washington DC	$263B	4.3×	55	$3.6B	2,336
11	Dallas	$224B	4.2×	47	$2.1B	2,053
12	Research Triangle	$144B	3.4×	27	$1.7B	1,053

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Country United States Country · North America · Pop. 340.1M · #1 country by EV Region North America Continent / region · Pop. 389.6M · #2 region by EV

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