Top Illinois Social Impact Startups (67)

Over the last 15 years, we’ve grown from a startup to a market-leading organization with over 150 team members, and we’ve created an award-winning culture that makes this company an amazing place to work. We've been ranked on multiple best places to work lists including the 2024 BuiltInChicago rankings.

Pangea is a digital money transfer platform that makes sending money abroad simple, reliable, and cost-effective. Founded in 2012 and based in Chicago, we’ve helped millions of people send money securely and efficiently, empowering financial freedom across borders. We serve a global customer base with a mobile-first platform that offers low fees, competitive exchange rates, and fast*, secure delivery. Our work...

SPEDxchange is an online community of special education teachers, Speech-Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, School Psychologists, School District Administrators and other staff that service special education students and their families. SPEDxchange is transforming and improving the way special educators, school districts and parents connect with each other.

Impact Engine is a venture capital and private equity firm investing in companies driving positive impact in economic empowerment, education, environmental sustainability, and health.

STIGMA is a mental health community that uses asynchronous messaging to connect you with people who share your lived experience. It is NOT a public social media site. There are no public profiles, no comment threads, no influencers... in other words, no vanity. This is a safe space to practice talking about your mental health.

The Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) is a member-driven non-profit​, nonpartisan organization that cultivates technology-based economic development throughout Illinois.​ Authorized by state statute in 1989 as Illinois’ technology adviser, we serve as a convener, catalyst, and champion for Illinois’ research, science, and technology communities. By providing our members and partners with a shared voice, the ISTC delivers measurable economic impact...

Nestidd buys houses, customizes them for people with disabilities, leases and maintains them - affordably. We provide superior risk-adjusted returns on invested capital by providing exceptional living spaces to premier care organizations and their clients. More than 1,000 adults with disabilities live in our homes, many of whom have never before had a place to call their own.

PiN is a renewable energy company disguised as an online gamification platform via website and mobile apps. PiN is a social enterprise that is a hybrid between online and mobile games and penny auctions. Users can win prizes through skills games, initially trivia games, with renewable energy advocacy and education built in before each game.

enterN is transforming the early-career hiring process by eliminating the biases embedded in traditional resume-based recruiting. By shifting the focus to verified skills and cultural fit, enterN provides a more equitable and effective way for employers to identify top talent among college students, recent graduates, and entry-level job seekers. Resumes introduce significant opportunities for implicit bias before the hiring process even...

At Gannon Solutions, we design and develop beautifully tailored websites cunningly optimized for all devices. We are a full-service digital firm. That means we partner with you from inception thru analytics on every project to help you stay relevant to your current customers and attractive enough to attain new.

Highland is a digital product consultancy in Chicago. We specialize in customer research, digital product design, custom web applications, and mobile app development. We believe that what we create should make it a little bit better to be alive: for us, our clients, and their customers.

We are a documentary video production company specializing in producing videos for purpose-driven organizations. Our video services are full service- from creative concept to shooting interviews and day in the life footage as well as editing, music and sound. Our social enterprise is committed to employing young people at risk from gun violence.

Global warming is perhaps the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, yet few Americans are giving the issue the attention it deserves. Part of the problem is that humans are poor at reacting to "slow-burn" future problems and part is that scientists & activists for the past 30 years have been using ineffective language and communications messaging

Bridge Legal's software platform, Bridgify, automates marketing, intake, casework up, and business intelligence for consumer law firms and their funders. We believe that individuals should have an equal opportunity to access the justice system to exercise their rights as large corporations have. We believe that if people are unaware of their rights or are unable to protect their rights, then...

At The Brainchild Collective, we activate every young person’s potential to transform the world through holistic education solutions that help prepare students to live healthy and thriving lives.

Amp Americas owns and operates one of the largest carbon negative fuels producing portfolios in the U.S. Amp makes ultra-low carbon intensity renewable natural gas (RNG) from dairy waste at 7 facilities in 3 states processing manure from over 100,000 cows. Amp operates three business units: Amp Americas Development, Amp Americas Services, and Amp Americas RNG Marketing. Amp’s dairy RNG...

BallotReady is an award-winning startup working to help every voter in America cast an informed vote on every race, every election. We create digital nonpartisan voter guides and build tools to help advocacy groups and campaigns inform and mobilize voters, powered by the most comprehensive database on every level of government. We’ve worked with organizations such as Snapchat, Tiktok, Spotify, and...

We help business women do tech and tech women do business. Mission: Evolve the conversation of female entrepreneurism beyond the issue of ‘changing the ratio,’ and towards actively advancing the quality of their businesses, networks and resources. https://angel.co/ms-tech 

Nature’s Fynd is a groundbreaking food tech company born out of NASA-supported research on extremophiles in the geothermal pools of Yellowstone National park. Our novel fermentation technology produces a sustainable source of complete protein using only a fraction of the resources required by traditional agriculture. As the challenge to feed the world’s expanding population grows, our mission is to create...

Loop delivers digitized scheduling solutions to the golf, ski, tennis, and pro sports industries. We offer a suite of software components (native mobile apps and cloud based backend platforms) that improve the quality of life of all our users from corporate schedulers to independent contractors.