Top Chicago, IL Software Companies With Best Stability & Growth (1,101)

Strong Revenue Growth: Recent results show Q1 2026 sales and revenues up sharply year over year to $17.4 billion, on top of record full‑year 2025 sales of $67.6 billion. Management also cited a record backlog supporting momentum.

Diversified Revenue Streams: Growth was broad-based in Q1 2026 across Construction Industries, Power & Energy, and Resource Industries. Within Power & Energy, power generation demand tied to data centers provided an additional lift.

Future-Ready Strategy: Company commentary points to secular tailwinds from data‑center build‑outs and grid power needs, with services expansion highlighted in recent materials. A record backlog and strong order activity indicate near‑term support while longer‑term growth levers are pursued.

Strong Revenue Growth: Revenue is rising, with 2025 up to $89.5B and Q1 2026 up 14% year over year to $22.2B on higher deliveries. This trajectory reflects continued recovery in commercial output.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: Backlog and orders are at record levels, including 1,173 net commercial orders in 2025 and a $695B total backlog covering 6,100+ airplanes. This depth provides multi‑year revenue visibility and supports planned rate increases.

Resilient & Sustainable Growth: Long‑term demand forecasts and a record backlog suggest durable growth beyond near‑term cycles. Stabilizing 737/787 production rates indicate capacity to convert demand into deliveries.

Strong Revenue Growth: Reported total net revenue increased from 2022 through 2024 and rose further into 2025–Q1 2026, with net interest income and purchase volumes materially higher year over year following the Discover close. Disclosures indicate deposits and loans also expanded, reinforcing top-line momentum.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: The completed Discover acquisition created the largest U.S. card issuer by loan volume and brought a proprietary payments network in-house. Materials also note Capital One as a top-tier U.S. bank by assets with expanded scale across cards and deposits.

Market Expansion: Announcements show a step-change in scale from M&A and entry into B2B spend management via the Brex acquisition. Management communications indicate broader platform breadth across issuing and network economics following Discover.

Profitability: Adjusted EBITDA and margins expanded in 2025 and again in Q1 2026, supported by a richer software and tech‑enabled services mix. Management links margin gains to the shift toward higher‑margin software.

Product Line Growth: Software solutions net sales increased for full‑year 2025 and again in Q1 2026, led by platforms such as Venue and ActiveDisclosure. Software also grew as a share of total sales, indicating momentum within the product portfolio.

Future-Ready Strategy: The company is executing a transformation toward recurring and reoccurring software that management views as a structural offset to capital‑markets cyclicality. Guidance and disclosures emphasize a path to a higher software mix over time.

Product Line Growth: Recent acquisitions of Planck and Cytora expanded AI/data and digital risk‑intake capabilities across the platform, alongside continued feature releases across Epic, EZLynx, Ivans, and Applied Pay. Conference and press activity point to steady rollouts, recognitions, and customer wins that broaden offerings for agencies, brokers, MGAs, and carriers.

Innovation-Driven Growth: Back‑to‑back AI‑focused deals and embedded AI features across the ‘Digital Roundtrip of Insurance’ indicate a roadmap anchored in automation and data‑driven workflows. Leadership transition plans explicitly frame the next stage around scaling AI‑led growth.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: Adoption momentum includes standardization by top brokers and growing traction for products like Applied Pay, supported by ecosystem engagement at Applied Net. Ongoing releases and industry recognitions suggest durable positioning across core agency/broker management systems.

Market Expansion: Square is processing more seller payments with notable outperformance outside the U.S. and increased traction among larger merchants. These shifts point to a broader footprint and healthier mix that can support durability.

Resilient & Sustainable Growth: Seller GPV and gross profit both increased in the latest quarter, and management raised full‑year guidance, indicating expectations for continued momentum. Investors tracking these seller metrics see underlying health improving despite volatility elsewhere at the parent level.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: Square is widely recognized as a leader in SMB POS and integrated payments with a broad ecosystem spanning hardware, software, and financial solutions. Cross‑ecosystem benefits with Cash App and product breadth differentiate it from single‑product rivals.

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: The company secured a $100M strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners in 2022 to accelerate its next phase. Leadership additions in 2025–2026 are framed as positioning for AI‑powered growth.

Product Line Growth: The company acquired Projector PSA (now BigTime Enterprise PSA) in 2022 and later added Primetric (2023) and WorkRails (2024), expanding into enterprise PSA and services CPQ. Rebranding and integration updates through 2026 indicate a consolidated, broader suite.

Innovation-Driven Growth: Public release notes across 2025–2026 describe frequent updates, including AI‑powered resourcing, a conversational report builder, and an AI Expense Agent. Ongoing AI feature rollouts and a declared platform evolution point to sustained product velocity.

Healthy Cash Flow: Cash increased by more than $40M to roughly $144M in Q1 2026, alongside a notable improvement in operating cash generation. Management also highlighted a sequential rise in cash together with better adjusted EBITDA.

Cost & Operational Efficiency: The company enacted cost reductions and corporate simplification in 2025, expanding its savings target to about $60M annually. Management cited these actions as supporting a sequential improvement in adjusted EBITDA to roughly $9.5M in Q1 2026.

Future-Ready Strategy: Guidance points to a planned return to growth in 2026 with Marketplace GOV and adjusted EBITDA targets and commentary focused on a back‑half inflection. The strategy emphasizes app‑led engagement, private‑label partnerships, and international expansion (including Europe and Asia) alongside the Vegas.com acquisition.

Strong Revenue Growth: Feedback suggests Lessen’s topline expanded materially through 2020–2024, highlighted by Inc. 5000 recognition and statements indicating movement from the hundreds of millions to around a billion post‑acquisition. Public materials attribute this to acquisition-driven scale plus continued platform activity.

Market Expansion: Feedback suggests the 2023 SMS Assist acquisition broadened the customer base, vendor network, and geographic reach across 100+ markets and over one million locations. Company materials cite 30,000+ vendors and millions of annual work orders as evidence of an expanded national footprint.

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: Feedback suggests the company has strong capital access, including a unicorn valuation in 2021 and substantial 2023 debt/equity financing to complete the SMS Assist deal. These transactions underpinned a combined enterprise value above $2B and supported ongoing product and platform build‑out.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: A $525M all‑cash acquisition by Itron announced Nov 17, 2025 and closed Jan 5, 2026 signals sustained traction and expansion potential under a larger platform. Reported scale of 1M+ work orders and 200M+ feet of linear assets processed indicates meaningful adoption and throughput.

Market Expansion: Expansion beyond the gas-utility core into electric utilities is evidenced by deployments such as an MDU rollout to ~90 electric crews and multi‑state electric projects. Implementation claims across the US, India, Europe, and Latin America suggest a growing geographic footprint.

Strategic Partnerships: Esri Gold Partner status and collaborations (e.g., Trimble GNSS integration, UDC implementation partnership) reinforce ecosystem credibility and distribution. Consolidation into Itron’s portfolio further enhances cross‑sell potential and commercial reach.

Strong Revenue Growth: Company announcements describe breakout ARR growth in 2025 driven by new and expanding relationships with private‑equity sponsors and their portfolio companies. This is the clearest revenue momentum indicator the company has published.

Market Expansion: A sizable Chicago office lease and stated plans to materially increase local headcount, plus recent New York and Dallas moves, indicate geographic scaling. Active recruiting and multiple listed offices reinforce an expanding footprint.

Product Line Growth: The company’s news flow shows ongoing platform and product additions across 2025–2026, including a pricing suite and the Astradis launch. Such releases are consistent with a scaling go‑to‑market.

Profitability: Results indicate non‑GAAP operating margins around 40% in Q1 2026 and an increased full‑year margin outlook, signaling strong earnings power despite muted top‑line growth. Guidance was raised after a Q1 beat, reinforcing margin stability alongside disciplined operations.

Healthy Cash Flow: Disclosures highlight strong free cash flow with Q1 2026 unlevered FCF up sharply and full‑year FCF guidance raised. Cash generation appears durable even as the company invests in infrastructure and product.

Innovation-Driven Growth: Product updates describe the gradual rollout of “Dash in Dropbox” and core sync/share improvements aimed at boosting engagement and monetization. Early signals from retention work in Individuals and funnel/product improvements in Teams suggest potential uplift if adoption scales.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: Independent analyst indices in 2024 (and later editions) placed the company at the top of location platforms, signaling competitive strength and platform maturity. Company disclosures add that its maps and software power functions in 220M vehicles globally, including ADAS in more than 53M vehicles.

Strategic Partnerships: The company reports multi‑year and expanded collaborations with BMW and Hyundai AutoEver, alongside a 10‑year AWS agreement and new tie‑ups in China (e.g., Baidu Maps, Mengqing). These arrangements indicate continued OEM adoption and ecosystem reach across regions and use cases.

Resilient & Sustainable Growth: Management disclosed a €4.4 billion order backlog going into CES 2025, suggesting healthy demand and multi‑year revenue visibility. Company statements also characterized 2024 as a year of “robust business growth” and “continued strong financial growth.”

Strong Revenue Growth: Reported results show full-year revenue increased from the prior year, with additional year-over-year gains in the latest quarter and positive organic growth. Segments like Morningstar Credit, the Morningstar Direct Platform, and PitchBook are cited as primary contributors.

Profitability: Company disclosures indicate operating income rose for the full year and expanded significantly in the latest quarter, with adjusted operating margins improving. This reflects stronger operating leverage even as the business invests.

Future-Ready Strategy: Management actions such as closing the CRSP acquisition, launching an AI assistant for advisors, and broadening distribution via Snowflake are positioned to support future growth and margin accretion. Momentum in core data/analytics and ratings further underpins the forward strategy.

Market Expansion: Recent integrations with Amazon DSP for CTV and the launch of a Mexico City hub indicate expansion across channels and geographies. Trade coverage of the OpenAI partnership further suggests entry into emerging ad surfaces like conversational experiences in ChatGPT.

Product Line Growth: The acquisition of INCRMNTAL (from LOI in March 2026 to completion in May 2026) and prior deals like Ad‑Lib.io and Viralspace broaden measurement and AI‑creative capabilities. These moves extend the platform from paid social toward cross‑channel creative, CTV, and incrementality.

Strategic Partnerships: Becoming OpenAI’s first creative ad‑tech partner and announcing an Amazon DSP integration demonstrate deepening ties with major ecosystems. Such relationships can accelerate distribution and feature access across new inventory and formats.

Product Line Growth: Bringg launched a Dynamic Delivery Slots extension in April 2025 and maintained steady release notes into late 2025–early 2026. These updates indicate continued investment in delivery‑promise accuracy and core routing/dispatch capabilities.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: A 2026 Best Buy case study describes a multi‑year rollout with measurable improvements and an ongoing partnership. Continued research and podcast activity into 2026 supports active go‑to‑market presence.

Strategic Partnerships: The acquisition of Zenkraft in 2022 deepened Salesforce‑native shipping and returns coverage that features in current “Bringg on Salesforce” positioning. An integrated multi‑carrier ecosystem is presented as a channel advantage for enterprise sales.

Product Line Growth: The company has expanded beyond paraphrasing into a broader suite that includes summarization, grammar, style/tone, PDF/image and additional audio/image/search tools. Feedback suggests ongoing feature rollouts are aimed at deepening engagement and reducing single‑use churn.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: The Chrome extension crossing a multi‑million install band and ongoing inbound traffic from major AI assistants indicate entrenched distribution and discoverability. These signals suggest the brand is increasingly embedded in user workflows beyond the website.

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: Placement within Learneo (formerly Course Hero), which reports large portfolio scale, provides distribution leverage and capacity to support continued product investment. This parent‑level reach can channel users to QuillBot and underpin ongoing development.

Product Line Growth: Recent launches such as ALIS 500 benchmarking, the ALIS 500 Clinical Report, Ask ALIS (AI assistant), and ALIS HQ indicate active expansion of offerings. Release notes through 2025–2026 and new modules reflect a sustained shipping cadence.

Innovation-Driven Growth: AI and data initiatives (e.g., Ask ALIS and benchmarking built from hundreds of communities’ data) show investment in differentiated capabilities. Partners initially launching new workflows with ALIS further signal innovation pull.

Strategic Partnerships: Announced integrations with CarePredict and other ecosystem vendors, NIC MAP Vision certification, and an open‑API/app‑store approach point to a growing partner network. Support materials cite additional integrations consistent with deeper enterprise adoption.

Strong Revenue Growth: Recent results show Q1 2026 revenue up year over year and full‑year 2025 revenue rising at a double‑digit rate. Management highlights continued momentum supported by higher originations and record receivables.

Profitability: Reported net income and adjusted EPS increased alongside revenue, with adjusted EBITDA also growing. Net revenue margin remained around 60%, indicating profitability sustained during expansion.

Market Expansion: A signed agreement to acquire Grasshopper Bancorp/Grasshopper Bank is intended to expand reach to more states and broaden the product suite once closed. Closing is targeted for the second half of 2026 pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: Available sources indicate continued access to capital via HearstLab’s May 2023 investment and a 2025 convertible note, with mentions of FJ Labs participation. These financings suggest sustained investor support through 2025.

Innovation-Driven Growth: Multiple updates highlight launches such as PartySlate Pro, AI photo tools (“Search My Photos,” “Photo Hub”), and a new Canva app. Feedback suggests an active roadmap aimed at event professionals and improved workflows.

Resilient & Sustainable Growth: Directional web-traffic estimates show visits rising from January to March 2026 and community activity through multi‑city summits in 2025. External snapshots also show modest headcount expansion from ~47 at end‑2024 to about 60 in 2026.