As summer begins to wind down, venture funding activity on the lakefront last month seemed to follow suit. Despite the total for the top Chicago tech rounds in August being down from July’s surge, several companies came through with fresh capital to fuel their growth. Find out what they’re planning.
#5. $5 million, August 30
The company has developed a system to help fleets of public safety and roadway vehicles prevent crashes. HAAS Alert uses cellular-based sensors to detect hazards in the road and predictive tech to alert drivers to them. With its $5 million seed round co-led by R^2 and Blu Ventures, HAAS Alert is scaling its sales and outreach efforts and prioritizing R&D with vehicle communication-focused tech partnerships.
#4. $6 million, August 26
Offering a mobile app that combines social media and sports gambling, the company wants to provide bettors with crowdsourced information and a customized way to stay updated on their favorite teams. HBSE Ventures and Verance Capital co-led the company’s Series A round, enabling it to fuel continued growth across marketing, technology and content as well as consider strategic acquisitions.
#3. $32.5 million, August 18
The company takes a tech-based approach to trucking insurance, using an algorithm to provide safety insights as well as telemetric devices and sensors to collect information. The end result gives trucking companies a dynamic insurance rate. With its Weatherford Capital-led Series B, HDVI is planning to invest in product development and fueling the national growth of its product.
#2. $60 million, August 12
By leveraging customers’ permissioned data, financial services company Klover allows users to access their earned wages instantly with no interest, credit check or hidden fees. It closed on a Series A round led by Mercato Partners Traverse Fund to invest in expanding its team across sales, marketing, engineering and product, as well as expanding its user base and the services and value it offers to its customers.
#1. $65 million, August 10
Hologram recorded 100 percent growth in revenue last year, and, with its latest round of funding, it’s projecting to double that growth this year. Enabling cars, TVs, bus stops and more to access the internet, the company makes SIM cards that allow these IoT devices to connect to a network of over 470 carriers across 200 countries. Hologram is tripling the size of its 70-person team following its Series B raise led by Tiger Global, and the company has raised $80 million in funding to date.
