Top Tech Companies in Chicago, IL (7,767)

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: Recent securitizations, forward‑flow agreements, and financing facilities indicate robust, ongoing access to funding for loan and card originations. These commitments suggest the capacity to support continued scale.

Product Line Growth: The business has broadened from personal loans into credit cards and added tools like Credit Builder. This multi‑product approach is cited as a driver of its recent expansion.

Strategic Partnerships: New and ongoing partnerships with capital providers and a national sports brand expand distribution and strengthen funding channels. These relationships point to sustained origination activity and reach.

Market Expansion: Feedback suggests Upside expanded its marketplace with 14,669 new retailer locations and 1.6M new customers in 2025, alongside 128M transactions and a 64% YoY jump in restaurant transactions in July 2025. Feedback suggests category breadth deepened as well, with Taco Bell locations up 400% year over year and the network reaching 100,000+ retailers and ~35M consumers.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: Feedback suggests scale signals are substantial, including 35M consumers, 100,000+ retailers, >$1B cumulative cash back, and a rise in retailer incremental profit from $605M in 2024 to $707M in 2025. Feedback suggests repeated inclusion on growth rankings (e.g., Inc. 5000, Deloitte Technology Fast 500) further reflects momentum and visibility.

Strategic Partnerships: Feedback suggests partnerships and integrations broaden distribution and merchant adoption, including Marqeta and rollouts with large operators such as Save Mart and major QSR franchise groups. Feedback suggests these alliances extend Upside’s reach beyond the standalone app via partner networks that help drive consumer exposure and category expansion.

Strong Revenue Growth: Revenue is rising at double-digit rates across recent periods, and management has increased full-year guidance, underscoring continued momentum. Growth is visible in both recent quarters and the prior year, indicating sustained top-line expansion.

Diversified Revenue Streams: Both Diagnostics and Data & Applications are expanding, with data-licensing/Insights activity increasing alongside clinical testing volumes. This mix reduces reliance on a single line of business and supports multiple growth vectors.

Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with major biopharmaceutical companies and broader rollouts of platforms such as Next signal expanding commercial reach. Announced initiatives like a large whole‑genome dataset and work with firms including Merck reinforce external demand for the platform.

Innovation-Driven Growth: Product development is described as continuously expanding — AI recruiting (e.g., Beaker), an Action Center, advanced analytics/insights, and an integrations marketplace — signaling innovation as a growth lever. These capabilities are presented as helping distributed businesses streamline hiring and deepen platform use.

Strategic Partnerships: Partnerships with major automotive OEM programs (e.g., Ford and GM dealerships) and ecosystem integrations (e.g., Indeed, ADP, UKG) are highlighted as extending distribution and customer reach. These ties reinforce go-to-market channels within core verticals.

Market Expansion: Expansion beyond automotive into healthcare and hospitality, plus the EmployUs acquisition, is noted alongside growth in users and substantial platform throughput. Company updates also indicate customers are broadening usage across sourcing, hiring, and onboarding.

Strong Revenue Growth: Net revenue increased year over year in the latest full year, with organic sales also up, and subsequent quarterly updates continued to show growth. Emerging markets contributed more than developed markets, helping sustain the top line.

Healthy Cash Flow: The company consistently generates multi‑billion‑dollar free cash flow and has continued dividends and share repurchases. This supports financial flexibility to invest and return capital despite cost headwinds.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: The business holds leadership positions in core categories (global leader in biscuits and a top‑two player in chocolate) backed by iconic brands and worldwide reach. Such scale and category strength support resilience across regions and channels.

Resilient & Sustainable Growth: Revenue has increased year over year to a new high, with all three major service lines posting gains despite a slower pace. Growth remains uneven by region, but the overall trajectory is upward over the last several fiscal years.

Future-Ready Strategy: Multi‑billion‑dollar investments in technology—especially nearly $1.5B in AI—along with acquisitions and scaling managed services indicate a deliberate pivot to future growth levers. Leadership attention to next‑generation audit and AI‑enabled capabilities underscores preparation for emerging demand.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: The organization is characterized as a leading global professional‑services network with broad scale across assurance, advisory, and tax and repeated external recognitions in select consulting categories. Reach across major multinational clients supports durable competitive positioning.

Strong Revenue Growth: Company reports indicate net trading revenue rose sharply in 2024 to a record level, with further material gains in 2025. Communications also describe continued investment in trading capabilities, technology, and expansion alongside this top-line growth.

Profitability: Net profit attributable to shareholders increased meaningfully year over year in 2025, reinforcing healthy earnings power. Commentary frames 2025 as a period of “strong performance and healthy growth,” suggesting profit improvements accompanied by reinvestment.

Market Expansion: The firm is enlarging its geographic footprint with a bigger Hong Kong office and a new New York hub for the Americas Systematic Equities business, while highlighting growth in India and other locations. Locations pages reference 10 global offices with several characterized as growing or strategically expanding.

Innovation-Driven Growth: U.S. online sales are rising at double-digit rates (e.g., +18.2% in 2025 at constant rates and +14.3% to +14.5% in early 2026), supported by a completed proprietary e-commerce platform across all five U.S. brands. Growth is shifting toward omnichannel retail with loyalty, pharmacy, and store-based fulfillment becoming larger contributors.

Future-Ready Strategy: The company plans about 1,000 remodels and new store openings by 2028 and is investing in supply chain infrastructure, including a new automated distribution center in North Carolina. Management is also committing significant U.S. price investments through 2028 to reinforce customer value.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: The U.S. business operates more than 2,000 local brand stores with roughly $58–60 billion in annual sales and over 26 million weekly customer trips, and is described as the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast and fourth-largest in the U.S. This scale underpins stability across brands such as Food Lion, Hannaford, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop.

Profitability: Operating income has risen materially alongside growth, with the latest quarter reporting meaningful GAAP and adjusted operating profits and expanding margins. This indicates the business is scaling while improving earnings quality.

Resilient & Sustainable Growth: Gross profit is expanding at a strong, accelerating pace, with both Cash App and Square contributing and management raising full‑year outlooks. Longer‑term disclosures also highlight multi‑year compounding in gross profit per user across ecosystems.

Cost & Operational Efficiency: A leaner organizational structure and disciplined spending have driven record adjusted operating margins and improved operating leverage. Efficiency gains appear to be a second engine alongside revenue drivers.

Market Expansion: The U.S. business broadened its reach, renaming to ABN AMRO Clearing USA in 2023 to reflect a “growing reach” and operating from Chicago and New York with clients trading across the U.S. and internationally. In 2026 it further widened access by enabling client connectivity to Bruce Markets’ overnight U.S. equities venue.

Product Line Growth: New capabilities were added in 2026, including a 24/7 clearing and risk-management model for eligible CME Group cryptocurrency futures and options. The expanded 24x5 U.S. equity offering alongside overnight venue access signals a broader suite of services for clients.

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: Audited 2025 U.S. financials show a sizable operating balance sheet and $800 million in members’ equity, with substantial funds segregated for regulatory purposes. This capital base underpins capacity to support larger client flows and ongoing investments.

Market Expansion: The company’s engineering team is now distributed across Chicago, Austin, Denver, Detroit, and Milwaukee, a change from its historically Chicago‑centric posture. This broadened presence indicates a larger operating footprint and reach.

Product Line Growth: New AI-focused offerings—such as AI implementation, AI environment setup, and AI‑accelerated software development—are being actively promoted alongside a steady stream of AI-related content in 2026. This expands the company’s addressable services beyond traditional custom software work.

Profitability: Leadership messaging references record months in profitability and revenue. These signals point to a solid operating model consistent with steady, boutique-scale growth.

Strong Hiring & Retention: Available information indicates headcount has moved from more than 900 to about 1,400 alongside active recruitment across marketing, design, engineering, and procurement, signaling ongoing talent expansion. Third‑party and campus postings in 2026 also reference 1,400+ employees across 26–28 countries.

Market Expansion: The organization operates across 26–28 countries with offices spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. This broad international footprint supports delivery across 100+ countries and multi‑market programs.

Strategic Partnerships: Continuing activity with major global clients such as McDonald’s, Starbucks, O2, Sony and others is evidenced by recent 2026 campaigns and long‑tenured relationships. The company also cites 400+ brand partnerships and large‑scale daily reach, indicating depth of commercial ties.

Healthy Cash Flow: Operating cash flow increased from $27.7 billion in 2024 to $33.6 billion in 2025, and Q2 2026 free cash flow was $4.6 billion, up 2.3% year over year. This indicates strong cash generation despite uneven top-line trends.

Diversified Revenue Streams: Connectivity revenue rose 4.2% to $46.0 billion in 2025 alongside growth in business services (to $10.2 billion), wireless lines (to 9.3 million), Peacock (revenue up 10% to $5.4 billion; paid subs up 22% to 44 million), and parks. Comcast also highlights six growth drivers—broadband, wireless, business services, studios, streaming, and parks—that represented about 60% of 2025 revenue.

Product Line Growth: Wireless and streaming scaled meaningfully, with approximately 1.5 million wireless line additions in 2025 and Peacock reaching 44 million paid subscribers that year and achieving first-time quarterly profitability in Q2 2026. Business services connectivity also expanded in 2026, including Q2 revenue up 3.7% and EBITDA up 5.0%.

Strong Revenue Growth: Management stated consistent double‑digit expansion with revenue growing more than 40% in the prior year, alongside significant market‑share gains. Plans to double headcount and a move into a 3× larger office reinforce the current growth trajectory.

Product Line Growth: The platform has expanded from core EHR/eMAR into CRM, billing and payments, occupancy/revenue tools, BI, family engagement, and AI (Ask ALIS), and added AI‑enabled dementia/behavioral‑care capabilities via its first acquisition. This broader suite increases revenue opportunity per customer and signals scaling beyond a single‑product footprint.

Market Expansion: The company reports serving assisted living, memory care, independent living, and behavioral‑care communities in more than 40 states, with usage across 3,000+ communities and 200,000 residents. An active partner ecosystem and 130+ integrations also indicate widening reach.

Strong Revenue Growth: Enterprise ARR from large customers is described as having accelerated in 2025, reinforced by multi‑year inclusion on the Inc. 5000 list that highlights sustained revenue expansion.

Product Line Growth: The platform broadened with new AI and agent‑driven GRC capabilities across third‑party risk, enterprise risk, AI governance, and business continuity, indicating a wider addressable product footprint.

Cost & Operational Efficiency: Operations are portrayed as prioritizing efficiency and market capture over aggressive headcount expansion, reflecting a disciplined scaling approach.

Strong Revenue Growth: Disclosures indicate revenue grew 137% in 2024 and 160% in the first nine months of 2025, reaching $783.7M for that period. Gains in average daily client balances and trading volume further underscore broad-based top-line acceleration.

Profitability: Net income turned meaningfully positive, with $89.1M in 2024 and $157.2M in the first nine months of 2025. This profitability alongside rapid scaling supports financial stability.

Market Expansion: The company expanded beyond U.S. prime brokerage into UK and European equities (e.g., LSE clearing membership) and pursued APAC access via regulatory approvals and acquisitions. It also broadened offerings across futures, fixed income, options, digital assets, and investment banking.

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: Evidence indicates a $70M Series C in 2022 equipped the company to accelerate market expansion, product development, and hiring. Subsequent actions like the Panelfox acquisition reflect capacity to invest behind growth initiatives.

Product Line Growth: Product launches in 2026—such as AI Studio and Dscout MCP—extend the platform beyond traditional UX research into AI research/evaluation and broader organizational use. This broadening suggests an expanding addressable market and ongoing innovation momentum.

Strong Hiring & Retention: Workforce data shows headcount higher in 2026 than in 2023, alongside an uptick in active job postings. Increased posting cadence over recent years indicates continued investment in talent rather than a hiring pause.

Strong Revenue Growth: Recent filings and earnings updates indicate sustained double-digit increases across annual and quarterly revenue, with momentum continuing into 2026. Guidance was raised during the year, reinforcing ongoing top-line expansion across core verticals.

Profitability: Results point to improving earnings quality, including a shift to positive net income on an annual basis and expanding adjusted EBITDA margins. Management also signaled further margin gains in 2026.

Customer Loyalty & Retention: Disclosures highlight a growing client base alongside net dollar-based retention that indicates expansion within existing customers. Wins across education, travel, healthcare, and B2B suggest durable relationships that support recurring growth.

Strong Market Position & Advantage: Adoption among major insurance brokers is described as deep, with 8 of the 10 largest U.S. brokers and many top-ranked agencies using an Applied system in 2025. Recognition such as Applied Epic’s inclusion in G2’s 2026 Top 100 and a large installed base reinforce a leading position in agency/broker management software.

Innovation-Driven Growth: Product expansion through AI-focused acquisitions such as Planck (2024) and Cytora (2025) adds risk digitization and automation capabilities. New offerings like Applied Recon, rapid growth in Applied Pay usage, and a “submissionless” experience with Travelers indicate active innovation driving usage.

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: Long-term backing from Hellman & Friedman, alongside Stone Point Capital, JMI Equity, and CapitalG, supports ongoing investment capacity and M&A. Multi-year ownership since 2014 aligns with continued acquisitions and product expansion.

Strong Revenue Growth: Reported roughly 70% year-over-year revenue growth in 2024 alongside expectations of 10M+ room nights points to strong top-line momentum. Independent press coverage corroborated these figures during the 2024 financing round.

Profitability: The company was described as profitable at scale around its 2024 funding milestone, indicating growth accompanied by operational discipline. Continued expansion into 2025–2026 has been paired with statements of cash-flow positivity.

Investor Backing & Capital Strength: A $140M Series C at a $2.1B valuation and a funding history totaling over $200M signal strong access to capital and investor confidence. The rising valuation from 2021 to 2024 underscores sustained financial backing.