chicago ventures

TikTok and Snap alums launch mayk.it, a social music creation app, with $4M in seed funding

After living through the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers are re-evaluating their career path. Stefan Heinrich Henriquez, a former head of Global Marketing at TikTok and chief ma

Chicago Ventures raises $63M to back seed-stage startups located anywhere but Silicon Valley

Buzzy mega-rounds and high-profile IPOs often dominate headlines. But many of those companies were once early-stage and scrapping to raise a seed round. Today, Chicago Ventures, a VC firm that often l

VCs bet $12M on Troops, a Slackbot for sales teams

Troops helps sales teams communicate via Slack.

Viacom buys the free video streaming service Pluto.tv for $340 million

Viacom is bucking the trend of launching new premium subscription-based entertainment offerings with its bid to acquire Pluto TV for $340 million in cash. It’s a way to distribute the company&

Data.world raises $12M to help Fortune 500 companies close the great data divide

Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Warby Parker and a long list of other startups of the 21st century have appointed C-level employees to roles focused exclusively on data science. These digital-age companies have e

Unpacking Etsy’s S1

Etsy’s S1 filing didn’t disappoint. Etsy is a powerful business with extraordinary network effects. Its customers are extremely loyal, and its committed sellers are earning significant income. But