The past year has been an exciting one for the Chicago tech scene, as major players grew their local footprints and once-stealthy startups lifted the veil to reveal what they're working on. We also saw a number of exciting new launches. These five, in particular, caught our attention.
Launched: May
What they do: Headquartered in Northbrook, IL, Impossible Objects is a 3D printing startup that lets companies produce anything from car parts to custom-built medical devices using additive manufacturing. The company debuted its flagship product, Model One, which boasts faster printing speeds and higher-strength materials than traditional 3D printers, in May. Impossible Objects also announced its Series A, a $6.4 million round led by OCA Ventures, in October.
Launched: September
What they do: Founded as part of Allstate, Arity makes technology that lets ride-hailing and car-sharing companies analyze data to understand how driver behavior will impact their bottom lines. Allstate announced the startup’s spinout at the end of last year, and Arity launched its flagship product in September. The startup has offices in Chicago, Northern Ireland and India.
Launched: August
What they do: In the world of high-frequency trading, barriers to entry are high. Putting your hat in the ring requires expensive hardware, infrastructure and recurring fees. Under the hypothesis that these limitations keep people with good ideas out of the marketplace, CloudQuant lets anyone with a quantitative bent try their hand at designing algorithms. If you find a trading strategy that looks promising, the firm will put it into action and pay commission on the profits.
Launched: November
What they do: Got friends who somehow always “forget” to pay you back for stuff? Singul is a digital app that lets groups settle shared bills at the time of payment. Instead of having one person cover the bill and asking the rest of the group to pay them back, Singul creates a single-use, virtual credit card with a balance for the bill’s exact amount. The startup then withdraws each person’s share directly from their checking account. Launched for iOS in November, Singul is currently working on an Android version of its app.
Launched: November
What they do: Finding the right apartment or house is just one part of the home buying process. In order to land the right place while avoiding unpleasant surprises, you need to check a lot of boxes and make sure you find the right agent, inspector, attorney and mortgage provider. Abode’s cloud-based platform guides users through every step of the process, using data to match them with the right service providers along the way. The startup is part of the Techstars Chicago 2017 cohort.
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