Early this week, Chicago Ventures announced its latest investment, this time in Zipments, a New York City-based same-day courier service.
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The $2.25 million seed round was led by NYC-based FirstMark Capital and Michigan-based Huron River Ventures, with participation from Chicago ventures and others.
“Zipments is a fast-growing company that has proven it can disrupt a traditional business with technology in one city, and they plan to do it again in many others,” says Chicago Ventures co-founder and partner Kevin Willer. “They are making delivery much more efficient [by] helping connect customers with couriers seamlessly.”
According to Willer, Zipments met all the criteria Chicago Ventures considers before investing. These include weighing the strength of the entrepreneurs and their ability to prove product-market fit and scaling potential, the extent to which founders understand the problem they’re trying to solve, their previous relevant experience, and the level of investment relative to the stage of the company and how much Chicago Ventures can add beyond capital, in the form of connections and the like. In this case, the Zipments founders’ experience building FedEx’s first mobile app gave them a leg up.
For Chicago Ventures, investing in a non-local company is of course different than it would be were Zipments based here, but Willer says that’s not a problem. In fact, considering the company was founded in Grand Rapids, Mich., and simply brought to market in New York City to prove its viability, shared Midwestern roots helped the investors connect with the entrepreneurs.
“We look forward to Zipments expanding to Chicago at some point in the future, and know we can help them be very successful in this market through our network,” Willer says. “Having a local partner in new markets can be critical to successfully entering and gaining traction quickly.”
Willer has been a partner at Chicago Ventures, formerly I2A Fund, since this summer. He was previously the CEO of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center.
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