The HEICO Companies, LLC

The Heico Companies is the parent holding company for a diverse portfolio of manufacturing, construction, and industrial services businesses. Today, we look to acquire performing businesses that complement our existing operations. As a buy, hold, and build investor, we have owned many of our operations for over 30 years. A key factor in our growth is our commitment to reinvest earnings in support of both organic growth and new acquisitions

TechNexus Venture Collaborative

TechNexus is a Venture Collaborative, a unique combination of businesses, corporate joint-ventures, private equity funds, and a fast-growing investment portfolio. Since 2007, TechNexus has managed a robust platform to empower entrepreneurs, transform business models at scale and drive innovation through ecosystems. The company has accelerated business opportunities between dozens of leading corporations and more than 600 startups and is among the most active venture investors in the US.

Dundee Venture Capital

<p>We are a venture capital firm in Omaha, Nebraska, that invests $50K - $1M in Midwestern seed-stage technology startups across all industries. We have extensive e-commerce and SaaS experience and seek to act quickly and provide more than just a check. We have portfolio companies in Chicago and are eager to invest in more.</p>

West Loop Ventures

WLV is a seed and series A venture fund that invests in Business to Business Fin Tech. The companies we invest in will have institutions as their customers. We invest in Insurance, Banking, Trading, Capital Markets, Finance Back office, Risk, Data, Process and anything that touches finance. Target fund size is $30M. Initial check size $100-$500K

Mercury Fund

<p>Mercury Fund is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm that invests in compelling and novel software and science-based startup opportunities.&nbsp;&nbsp;With over $250 million under management, Mercury partners with extraordinary entrepreneurs to build globally competitive businesses, focusing on technology innovation originating in the U.S. Midcontinent.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our firm has a particular interest in startups associated with regional startup development organizations, such as seed accelerators, incubators and university tech transfer offices.&nbsp;&nbsp;Since inception in 2005, Mercury Fund has become one of the most active venture firms in the middle of the U.S., becoming a “go-to” fund for entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of idea generation, company formation, and market execution.</p>

New Stack Ventures | Venture Capital

We invest in founders and products that are positioned to fundamentally change existing markets or create new markets. We typically invest $100k-$500k at the seed or pre-seed stage. Our aim is to support founders and future founders before any capital has been raised.

New Stack Ventures

New Stack Ventures leads investment rounds in pre-seed and seed stage startups for founders outside the typical mold.

VAULT Innovation

We’re a venture studio designed for companies wanting to build high-impact software. We’ve successfully helped launch 60+ digital products for companies. We explore markets where deep subject matter expertise is required to produce the purpose-driven products and software we build. We’ve been honing our approach to tackle such challenges since 2012.

Plug and Play Chicago

<p style="color: rgb(66, 66, 66); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Plug and Play Chicago is a seed to series A investment and acceleration program for Chicago-based start-ups looking to access the resources of Silicon Valley.</p><p style="color: rgb(66, 66, 66); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The 10 week program will take place at the Plug and Play headquarters in Silicon Valley and serve to complement the existing Chicago community and incubators. Apply to pitch at our next selection day on May 29th in Chicago (location to be determined).</p><p style="color: rgb(66, 66, 66); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><strong>Our track record:</strong></p><p style="color: rgb(66, 66, 66); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Plug and Play is an ecosystem of 300 resident startups, with 1600 total accelerated startups and 200+ investments since 2006. Our startups have collectively raised over $2B in venture funding and had 82 exits to date. Successes include PayPal, Dropbox, Lending Club, Vudu and Zoosk.</p><p style="color: rgb(66, 66, 66); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><strong>The Program:</strong></p><p style="color: rgb(66, 66, 66); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Startups will receive $25,000 funding for 5% equity and will be part of a 10 week program of workshops, mentoring and a demo day. &nbsp;Startups will have dedicated workspace and Plug and Play requires particaption of the founding teams for the majority of the program.</p>

Baird Venture Partners

<p>U.S.-based venture capital fund of Baird Private Equity, makes investments in early- and expansion-stage companies in the Business Services and Healthcare/Life Sciences sectors.</p>

Lead Lap Enterprises

<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(57, 57, 57); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Lead Lap is a Northfield, Illinois-based family office and private investment firm with several current investments in private companies.&nbsp; Lead Lap seeks control investments in small to mid-size companies in the business services, consumer products/services, health services, and the education, marketing, media, advertising, information and online sectors. Lead Lap also makes non-control growth capital investments in promising businesses.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(57, 57, 57); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Lead Lap was founded by operating executive David F. Zucker (“Zucker”), who serves as Managing Partner, and made his first private company investment in 1994. Zucker combines twenty-four years of operating experience as a CEO/General Manger of public and private companies, and company divisions in the media, business services, consumer, and technology businesses with deep experience in the acquisition and investment process, having overseen, completed, and integrated more than twenty business acquisitions of varying sizes during his career.</p>

Leo Capital Advisors

<p><span style="color: rgb(117, 117, 117); font-family: 'Droid Sans', Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Leo Capital Holdings, LLC is a privately funded venture investor making investments in early and later stage private companies. Our focus is primarily on consumer oriented technology and applications. We like ventures that target very large markets, and consider investment opportunities across the United States.&nbsp;</span><br style="color: rgb(117, 117, 117); font-family: 'Droid Sans', Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><br style="color: rgb(117, 117, 117); font-family: 'Droid Sans', Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="color: rgb(117, 117, 117); font-family: 'Droid Sans', Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">Leo maintains a broad network of contacts, investors, and advisors with whom we work after investing to help build value, and usually make investments that allow for our active involvement.</span></p>

M25 VC

M25 Group seeks to responsibly steward our investors' capital by sourcing alternative investments with substantial potential to multiply.

Clean Energy Trust

Clean Energy Trust is a nonprofit that invests in the entrepreneurs leading the clean technology revolution.

FireStarter Fund

<p>FireStarter Fund is a Chicago-based self-managed investment fund. It consists of 42 members and has $5.7 million in committed capital. The Fund focuses primarily on companies in the digital media &amp; marketing, software as a service, and e-commerce sectors, with a focus on web social, mobile and big data, and it makes most of its investments in series A or B rounds.</p>

Romar Partners

Romar Partners is led by Scott Wald and George Colis, serial entrepreneurs & co-Founders of SurePayroll. We invest our time, expertise and capital in contributing to the growth and success of a select number of early stage B2B technology companies. Supportive & engaged coaches, we work closely with entrepreneurs to drive outsized outcomes.

Treehouse Adventures

Treehouse Adventures is a non-traditional investment group with roots in Clayco, one of the nation’s leading full-service, design-build construction companies. We empower innovators to create growth businesses in the areas of building technology, material sciences, multidisciplinary design and other areas of construction services.