As city officials stay mum about Amazon HQ2 negotiations, the Chicago tech ecosystem just scored another major relocation deal.
IntuiLab, a French adtech firm that specializes in content for interactive displays, announced this week that it has raised a $3.7 million Series A round with the goal of expanding its operations in the United States — more specifically, in Chicago.
Kurt Haller, who will head up IntuiLab’s new North American headquarters, said the company expects to announce the location of its new West Loop office by the end of the month. Already hiring for several roles across sales and engineering, Haller expects the office to expand to around 16 employees by the end of next year.
According to Haller, the decision to expand to Chicago was based on a confluence of factors.
“IntuiLab has more than 1,500 customers across more than 80 countries, with 50 percent based in the U.S.,” said Haller. “We want to open the office in Chicago because of the vibrant tech scene, access to talent and central location to reach customers throughout the U.S.”
IntuiLab’s software lets advertisers create touchscreen-enabled content for digital signs — think mall directories, interactive kiosks and tablets — without having to write code. The technology is device-agnostic and supports a range of multimedia formats including videos, 3D models, maps and full websites.
The announcement follows a series of similar wins for the Chicago tech ecosystem. Showpad, a Belgian software firm, announced plans to double its Chicago office following a $25 million funding round late last month. Foursquare also announced a Chicago engineering office last month.
Early last month, Crain’s reported that Chicago was also under consideration for a new Google office that would play home to 1,000 to 5,000 employees. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has also vowed to court Apple in its quest for a new campus, announced by the Cupertino company in January.
Chicago is already home to sizable offices for Silicon Valley-based and international tech giants like Salesforce, Uber, Google, HERE and SAP.
