New report names 1871 world’s leading university-affiliated incubator
UBI Global, a European data and advisory firm with a specialty in business incubation, just ranked 1871 as the world’s leading university-affiliated business incubator. Announced late last week, the ranking is part of an annual report. For this year’s rankings, the organization considered more than 1,300 incubators in 53 countries. In determining its rankings, the organization considers an incubator’s impact on participating companies, as well as on the surrounding tech ecosystem. [Press release]
Genivity to pitch gene-based financial planning at Google Demo Day
Genivity, a Chicago startup that combines data about lifestyle and hereditary factors to help consumers plan finances around their most likely health outcomes, has been invited to pitch at Google Demo Day. A fintech spinoff from TapGenes, which uses family trees to help users get a fuller picture of their health risks, the startup will pitch at Google’s San Francisco office on March 28. [Chicago Inno]
ServiceNow is bringing 150 tech jobs to Chicago
ServiceNow, which makes cloud-based software that helps companies streamline their operations, announced on Friday that it is opening an engineering center in Chicago. The new center, to be located in the Fulton Market District, is the California company’s first tech office outside the West Coast. ServiceNow will make 150 hires for the center over the next two years. [Built In Chicago]
Grubhub launches initiative to promote women-led restaurants
On Monday, Grubhub announced the launch of a $1 million fund to support social causes in the food industry. The company’s first initiative, RestaurantHER, will encourage diners to bring more business to restaurants led by women. According to the company, only 19 percent of chefs, and 7 percent of head chefs, in the country are female. As part of the initiative, the company is creating user-sourced maps of establishments run by women, donating to the nonprofit Women Chefs and Restaurateurs and providing tools to help restaurant managers create more inclusive cultures. [Press release]
Community colleges launch free coding bootcamp
A free coding bootcamp program run by City Colleges of Chicago is now taking applications. The program, which will kick off in early April, will last five months and consist of 12 hours of weekly lectures during evenings and weekends. The bootcamp will be offered at Kennedy-King College and Truman College. The program is accepting applications through March 5. [Built In Chicago]
Bazaarvoice buys Chicago-based AI startup
AddStructure, a natural language processing startup that specializes in helping companies improve their e-commerce platforms, was acquired by Bazaarvoice late last week. AddStructure, which was founded in 2014 and is a graduate of the Minneapolis, MN-based Techstars Retail Accelerator, has worked with companies like Target and Best Buy. According to a statement issued by Bazaarvoice, the company is already working to integrate AddStructure’s technologies into its stack. [Blog post]
STATS adds a floor to accommodate growing staff
STATS is opening a new floor at its Chicago headquarters to make room for more than 100 new employees. The sports analytics provider, which moved to downtown Chicago from Northbrook, IL a year and a half ago, currently has more than 200 employees in the city. “Having more employees at our headquarters will help foster greater innovation for the industry-leading products and services we provide globally,” said CEO Carl Mergele in a statement. “This is an exciting time for STATS.” [Press release]
Synap joins forces with New York-based software firm
Synap Software Labs, a Chicago-based provider of account management and investment collaboration software, is merging with Imagineer Technology Group. Jeremie Bacon, Synap’s co-founder and CEO, will head up the joined entity, which is keeping the Imagineer name, as CEO. Imagineer founder Erol Dusi will stay on as the company’s president. [Press release]
Legacy.com is expanding its tech offerings
Digital obituary publisher Legacy.com announced on Monday that it is partnering with self-serve advertising publisher iPublish Media to combine some of their technological offerings. Together, the two companies will allow customers to fill out a form that is automatically translated into a fully written obituary using natural language generation. That obituary can in turn be turned into a full-color memorial. [Legacy]
Chicago tech companies welcome new executives
DialogTech, which provides marketing analytics for company call centers, announced on Tuesday that chief operating officer Doug Kofoid is taking the helm as its new CEO. Founder and former CEO Irv Shapiro will be the company’s new executive chairman. “I handpicked Doug for the COO role 13 months ago with this very promotion in mind,” said Shapiro in a statement. Kofoid’s resume includes leadership roles at companies like Publicis Groupe and Google/DoubleClick. [Press release]
Jellyvision, whose technology guides employees at large companies through complicated life decisions, just brought on a new vice president of people. Kelly Dean joins the company by way of Crate and Barrel, where she was director of human resources. Before that, she was Apple’s talent strategy manager for Americas.
