Chicago minted no fewer than 8 unicorn startups already in 2021, and the year is only half over, easily doubling last year’s count. Why is the Windy City suddenly a center of Midwest tech funding? The reasons are numerous why the Midwest, and Chicago in particular, is experiencing long overdue growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, but the basics boil down to this:
Leading biotechnology company Amgen announced recently that it plans to invest $365 million to build a new manufacturing facility in New Albany, Ohio, which is located near new insurtech/healthtech hub Columbus. This move will create 400 new jobs. The facility will feature Amgen’s advanced assembly and product packaging capabilities for medicines to be distributed in the U.S.
Chicago’s rise as a tech hub is still accelerating. According to World Business Chicago, the rapid growth of the Midwest city as a producer of unicorns, or tech startups valued at over $1 billion, has only increased through 2021, with 8 new tech companies being minted as unicorns only halfway through the year, double last year’s count:
Nonprofit research institution EntryPoint recently announced the release of its 2021 Detroit Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Report, which shows a 333% increase in capital attracted to the Detroit, Michigan, region, due to the growth of the local tech community.
Chicago minted no fewer than 8 unicorn startups already in 2021, and the year is only half over, easily doubling last year’s count. Why is the Windy City suddenly a center of Midwest tech funding? The reasons are numerous why the Midwest, and Chicago in particular, is experiencing long overdue growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, but the basics boil down to this:
Leading biotechnology company Amgen announced recently that it plans to invest $365 million to build a new manufacturing facility in New Albany, Ohio, which is located near new insurtech/healthtech hub Columbus. This move will create 400 new jobs. The facility will feature Amgen’s advanced assembly and product packaging capabilities for medicines to be distributed in the U.S.
Chicago’s rise as a tech hub is still accelerating. According to World Business Chicago, the rapid growth of the Midwest city as a producer of unicorns, or tech startups valued at over $1 billion, has only increased through 2021, with 8 new tech companies being minted as unicorns only halfway through the year, double last year’s count:
Nonprofit research institution EntryPoint recently announced the release of its 2021 Detroit Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Report, which shows a 333% increase in capital attracted to the Detroit, Michigan, region, due to the growth of the local tech community.
Chicago has been minting unicorn companies, or startups valued at over $1 billion, at a brisk rate in 2021. New unicorn G2 is the fifth of the year. The B2B enterprise software marketplace and review platform startup just raised $157 million in a Series D round led by Permira, a London-based private equity firm. So far, G2 has raised over $250 million in total.
The 2021 MVCA Research Report has just been released, with more details available than our recent interview with Executive Director Ara Topouzian. The 2021 MVCA Research Report shows that 88 Michigan startups received more than $257 million in venture capital investment in 2020. The report estimates that an additional $1.2 billion of venture capital will be required to adequately fund the growth of Michigan’s 165 startup companies in the next two years.
Michigan is emerging like every other state from the haze of the COVID-19 pandemic. As companies and individuals chart a course forward, Cronicle wanted to check on the base of the tech startup pipeline: funding. Patti Glaza and Ara Topouzian have front-row seats to VC funding in Detroit, and in Michigan overall, and were gracious enough to spend an hour talking with us about what they’re seeing in the tech startup space after 2020. We hope that whether you are tech talent, a VC investigating Michigan’s startup space, or a startup founder looking for funding, our conversations with the folks in the venture capital scene help you connect with resources that help you also chart a course forward as the pandemic winds down.
Michigan’s economy has had a “K shaped recovery” as the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate effect on restaurant, retail, and Main Street businesses that still have not recovered. What many people have been wondering is how businesses are faring who were able to function remotely or support businesses in that endeavor. Has Michigan hit yet another “once in a lifetime” financial crisis? The answer is a bit complicated, but there is a lot of good news for businesses like tech and life science companies that could pivot to remote work structures. We reached out to a few VC and angel investors in the Ann Arbor-Detroit startup space to get their perspective on what’s happening at the very base of the startup pipeline: funding. As everyone in the startup space knows, Michigan has always dragged a bit behind on having enough funding for the great startups that come out of this region, so we were concerned that if the funding dropped, the ecosystem might lag. Fortunately, we found the behind the scenes reality is quite the opposite, and many investors were happy to share their tips on how businesses can get in the loop on what’s going on in Michigan startup funding in 2021.
Asalyxa Bio, Inc., a biopharmaceutical startup developing nano-engineered, immune cell-targeted therapeutics, just announced the closing of an over-subscribed seed financing round totaling more than $2 million. The funding was led by Research Bridge Partners, co-led by ID Ventures, and included Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund III, BRCC of Western Michigan University, Ann Arbor Spark, Woodward Angels and other undisclosed investors. The funding will be used to move Asalyxa Bio’s lead development candidate, ASX-100, toward first-in-human clinical trials. We previously highlighted Asalyxa Bio’s early work on Cronicle as the company, led by Asalyxa Bio and holding company OrangeGrove Bio CEO Marc Appel, applied their technology to addressing Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome caused by COVID-19 and other diseases.
Three Michigan startups from mid-Michigan have just been named to a Michigan list of 25 top startups to watch, the Renaissance VC Fund list. Ann Arbor-Detroit and Traverse City aren’t the only Michigan cities creating welcoming communities for new tech startups. According to incubator Lansing LEAP, which supports new ventures in the Mid-Michigan region, “The Lansing area grew by 5% in 25 critical high-tech occupations from 2015-2020 and projects an additional 4% growth from 2020-2025, outpacing the national average.” Lansing is not known as one of the bigger emerging tech hubs in the Midwest, but its network of advanced manufacturing, seat of state government, and growing funding make it a critical and growing part of the Midwest’s long-standing effort to recover and diversify the economy and provide new businesses with a healthier climate to operate with a much lower operating cost than on the coasts.
