The Chicago tech scene is thriving with plenty of pre-holiday week activity. With a new acquisition and several growth-oriented moves, find out what’s in the works. This is the Built In Chicago weekly refresh.
Life Fitness moved its HQ. The seller of commercial fitness equipment established its new headquarters in Franklin Park. The 200,000-square-foot office facility will undergo a modern renovation and be outfitted with amenities like a cafe and a fitness center. It’ll also feature a fitness showroom and experience center to show off product innovations to its customers. [Life Fitness]
AxleHire expands into Chicago. The company offers same-day and next-day delivery services in locations like LA, Dallas, New York, San Francisco and more. Now it’s expanding its last-mile delivery coverage into the Chicago metro area. Axlehire operates through a network of gig economy, courier and traditional carriers. [AutoBala]
Chicago Tech Quote of the Week
ShipBob raised $200M. Logistics company ShipBob closed on a Series E round that brought the company’s valuation to over $1 billion. With the funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, ShipBob is looking to pursue more customers, expand its software platform and add more fulfillment centers. Its cloud-based platform provides SMBs with access to its network of fulfillment centers and its supply chain. [Built In Chicago]
PechaKucha got $2.7M. With its seed funding led by Muneaki Masuda, PechaKucha is planning to scale its platform. The company offers a storytelling platform that helps people connect via real life and digital talks, sessions and chats. It’s also growing its team across product design, software development and marketing. [PRWeb]
Level Ex launched a new mobile game. Developer of medical video games Level Ex announced the launch of its fifth product, Top Derm, a resource for physicians in the dermatology field. The game features original dermatological imagery to help users learn about common and rare skin disorders. The company is currently working toward providing dermatologists with the opportunity to earn free CME credits as well. [Business Wire]
Copado to acquire Qentinel. The DevOps platform for cloud-based digital transformations entered an agreement to acquire Qentinel. The latter offers robotic software testing usable with enterprise software like Microsoft and Oracle. Copado is leveraging the acquisition to build and deploy high-quality AI-based products with low risk across multiple clouds. [PR Newswire]
