Chicago
Metro area · United States · Pop. 10M · #24 city by EV
Enterprise value
How much Chicago’s VC-backed companies are worth
Combined enterprise value of VC-backed companies headquartered in Chicago, founded since 1990 and still operating, at the end of each year. Companies stay in the total after they list or are acquired.
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.
Startup funnel
Chicago's startup funnel
Companies headquartered in Chicago at each stage today, by total VC raised. Hover a bar for the split.
Source: Dealroom.co
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
Loading VC raised by Chicago-headquartered companies…
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
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.
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Notable alumni-founded: PayPal (co-founder)YouTube (co-founder)Yelp
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.
Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.
Top cities in United States ranked by combined EV. Chicago's row is highlighted (#10).
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bay Area | $20.1T | 8.0× | 895 | $158B | 24.9K |
| 2 | Seattle | $2.9T | 4.5× | 70 | $6.8B | 2,986 |
| 3 | Austin | $2T | 13.7× | 60 | $7.9B | 2,740 |
| 4 | New York City | $1.5T | 5.0× | 325 | $32.2B | 16.7K |
| 5 | Los Angeles | $1.2T | 5.6× | 166 | $17.7B | 8,740 |
| 6 | Boston | $1.2T | 4.4× | 211 | $13B | 6,390 |
| 7 | Miami | $684B | 11.9× | 43 | $3B | 2,955 |
| 8 | San Diego | $326B | 5.0× | 64 | $3.4B | 2,247 |
| 9 | Washington DC | $285B | 3.4× | 62 | $4.3B | 2,576 |
| 10 | Chicago | $264B | 3.7× | 54 | $2.3B | 2,848 |
| 11 | Dallas | $225B | 4.1× | 48 | $2.1B | 2,078 |
| 12 | Research Triangle | $144B | 2.8× | 27 | $1.7B | 1,068 |
More data
Explore Dealroom data →Get the full Chicago ecosystem on Dealroom
Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.