Top startups in Chicago.
43 Chicago companies have disclosed $4B in SEC filings, and founders there can apply to 39 accelerator programs.
Most funded in Chicago
By total disclosed across the period, one row per company. Combine filters to narrow — "Recently funded" plus "Hiring now" is who just raised and is actively recruiting.
Filter definitions — Hiring now: open roles on the company's public job board as of Aug 10, 2026. Hiring remote: that board lists remote or distributed roles. Recently funded: a Form D filed in the trailing twelve months. $100M+/$500M+: cumulative disclosed amount across all offerings. Repeat raisers: more than one offering on file. Up-and-coming: incorporated within the last four years and recently funded — incorporation year is disclosed by roughly half of filers, so this undercounts.
Accelerators in Chicago
Chicago founders can apply to 39 accelerator programs in our directory — including 1871, Chicago Venture Summit, Clean Energy Trust, Cleveland Avenue, DWG Business X-celerator, Elmspring Accelerator.