10 Chicago Companies Heating Up This Month

Ask anyone in the city, and they’ll tell you there’s nothing like Chicago in the summertime.

While Chicagoans are planning for beach trips, bike rides along Lake Shore Drive and a plethora of neighborhood festivals and concerts, the local tech scene is blooming in the sunshine. 

Companies like CNA, Cleo, Applied Systems and Attain are growing their teams to meet the needs of their customers. 

And new partnerships and acquisitions like Embroker and tasty are proof that business in Chicago is heating up.

For professionals keeping an eye out for what’s happening in local tech, Built In Chicago is covering all the latest summer highlights happening around town.

 

What CNA does: CNA offers a broad range of standard and specialized insurance products and services for businesses and professionals in the United States, Canada and Europe.

 

Open roles at CNA: CNA began hiring a large number of roles this past month. The majority of positions are hybrid and located in the Chicago area, but there are also a small amount of remote opportunities. The open roles range from entry level to senior level in such fields as underwriting, employee relations, software development, legal and claims.

 

What Applied Systems does: Applied Systems creates cloud software for the global insurance industry.

 

Open roles at Applied Systems: Applied Systems is hiring a large number of remote roles out of its Chicago office. While many of these positions are in software engineering, there are also roles in product management, customer support, business strategy and sales.

 

 

What Zoro does: Zoro is an e-commerce platform that provides businesses and consumers with over 10 million products with fast and affordable shipping.

 

Innovating to move forward, together: As a digital-first business, Zoro has been making steady updates to its platform to bring a better shopping experience to customers every day. In a February 2024 conversation with Built In Chicago, Zoro employees shared the story of a recent product transformation that pulled the entire team together, allowing them to ship products faster than they ever have before.

 

What Cleo does: Cleo is an ecosystem integration software company that gives customers visibility into the critical end-to-end business flows.

 

Open roles at Cleo: Cleo is currently hiring for a number of remote positions and hybrid positions in the Chicago area. The listings span project management, revenue and engineering roles from entry to senior level.

 

 

What Home Chef does: Home Chef is a meal solution provider that helps customers bring more delicious meals and moments to the table.

 

Making mealtime dependable: In late 2023, Home Chef launched a new product designed to bring balanced meals to customers in the most convenient way possible. Called Tempo, the a weekly delivery service of microwavable meals suit customers who prioritize consistency and easy access for daily meals — that can be prepared in four minutes.

 

What Attain does: Attain is an opt-in purchase platform, built for the cookieless internet — with visibility across all retailers, verticals and purchases — that provides solutions for the modern marketer. 

 

Open roles at Attain: Attain has recently begun hiring for several hybrid roles in the Chicago area. The roles range from mid- to senior-level positions in revenue, product management and finance.

 

What tasty does: Acquired by London-based IG Group, tasty is a house of brands that empowers traders with a variety of content and software solutions.

 

Growing to meet demand: Earlier this year, the global trading platform IG Group acquired tasty in a $1 billion deal. This acquisition highlights the rise in demand for software and applications that allow everyday investors to have easier access to the stock market, and under IG Group, tasty will continue to grow its several brands of products.

 

What Embroker does: Embroker is a digital-first insurance company helping businesses manage their risks with a radically simple approach.

 

Solving pain points through partnership: In early July, Embroker announced a partnership with fellow insurance technology company Millennial Shift Technologies. This partnership also introduced a new technology solution that automates the underwriting process for excess technology errors and omissions insurance, greatly streamlining multiple areas of the insurance quoting and purchasing process.

 

What BigTime does: BigTime provides time-tracking, billing and project management software to professional firms.

 

Making space for everyone: Over the last few years, BigTime’s ERGs have grown from one, Women at BigTime, to four established groups united by identity and purpose. In a conversation with Built In Chicago, Learning and Development Specialist Ishani Kejriwal described the groups as so passionate about community that there are often too many good ideas to go around. “We spend a lot of our meetings ensuring we don’t overwhelm the team with too many events or messages,” said Kejriwal.

 

What Prosodica does: Prosodica is a voice and speech analytics engine that helps businesses gain insights into customer experiences, employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

 

Fewer rules, more belonging: At Prosodica, great company culture is built on the concept that inclusiveness trumps policy. In the spirit of creating the most fun and engaging workplace for employees who value autonomy, CEO and founder Mariano Tan encourages employees to set their own rules to match the way they work best. Built In Chicago sat down with Tan to hear how levity and support became prominent cultural pillars of the organization. “When people feel a part of something and their individuality is embraced, they find ways to be creative, take more risks and make a unique contribution,” said Tan.