Top Ten in Tech: Chicago | Electrification Is Reshaping Chicago’s Core Industries
TechNexus Venture Collaborative
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Welcome to the 12th edition of Top Ten in Tech: Chicago by TechNexus Venture Collaborative. Every other week, we deliver ten focused updates on the startups, deals, and innovation shaping Chicago’s tech ecosystem.
With nearly 20 years of investing and ecosystem building, TechNexus has backed 150+ ventures and helped corporations engage with emerging industry leaders. We understand how collaboration, networks, and technology ecosystems drive industry growth.
In this issue, Andrew Wolohan TechNexus' VP of Venture showcases the Electrification 50 and breaks down key venture deals and recent acquisitions across Chicago.
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POWER MODE: Introducing the Electrification 50 ??
By Andrew Wolohan, Vice President, Venture
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At TechNexus Venture Collaborative, our work at the intersection of corporate innovation and early-stage venture gives us a front-row seat to how startups are reshaping legacy industries. The newly released Electrification 50 list highlights 50 U.S.-based early-stage companies tackling hard-tech challenges across sectors also critical to Chicago’s economy—including logistics, agriculture, heavy industrial manufacturing, and rail services.
For Chicago’s logistics and rail sectors, electrification means next-gen fleet technology, lower emissions, and smarter infrastructure. In heavy industry and manufacturing, energy transition is driving the adoption of cleaner, more efficient machinery and production processes. And in agtech, electrification is shaping the future of precision farming, autonomous equipment, and sustainable operations.
This isn’t just an industry shift—it’s a massive opportunity for Chicago’s strongest sectors to adopt technology and set the pace for the future of industrial innovation.
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Now, onto our Top Ten...
01 // HDVI announces $40M fundraise
High Definition Vehicle Insurance (HDVI) , a Chicago-based commercial auto insurance startup, raised $40m from insiders 8VC, Autotech Ventures, Munich Re Ventures, and Weatherford Capital. The round will support the enhancement of HDVI's telematics-driven products, expanded coverage, and improved tools for insurance agents as the company scales nationwide.
02 // Cognida.ai announces $15M fundraise
Cognida.ai a Chicago-based startup focused on enterprise AI implementation, raised $15m in Series A funding led by Nexus Venture Partners. This new funding will expand Cognida.ai’s AI solutions, scale its Zunō platform, grow implementation teams, and accelerate enterprise adoption.
03 // Frontenac closes oversubscribed Fund XIII at $900M
Frontenac a Chicago-based private equity firm, today announced the closing of its 13th fund, Frontenac XIII Private Capital L.P. Known for its CEO1ST approach, Frontenac drives lower middle-market growth buyouts by combining capital, experienced operators, and proven value creation across consumer, industrial, and services sectors.
04 // Upcoming #ChicagoEvents
05 // Giving ‘Props’ to PropTech & Construction
Through our Reinventing Industry series, TechNexus is highlighting key ventures transforming industries across Chicago.
This time, we explore Construction & PropTech—a sector spanning smart building management, digital planning tools, property marketplaces, and AI-driven tenant screening solutions. A more niche category in terms of local ventures, Chicago is home to over 30 early-stage ventures that have raised over $60 million in cumulative funding operating in the space of construction, real estate, and proptech. Read all about it here.
06 // Powering GovTech Innovation from Chicago
Scaling out of TeamWorking by TechNexus, Marketplace.city is transforming how local governments source and implement technology. By bridging the gap between cities and innovation, they’re helping municipalities move faster and make smarter decisions. Read more.
07 // ASGN to acquire Chicago-based TopBloc
ASGN Incorporated (NYSE: ASGN), a leading provider of IT services and professional solutions across the commercial and government sectors, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire TopBloc, LLC, a leading, high-growth, tech-enabled Workday consultancy, for $340 million in cash and equity.?
08 // The 2025 Cozad New Venture Challenge: A record-breaking year for Illini startup talent
305 teams. It's the biggest year yet. The Grainger College of Engineering , Technology Entrepreneur Center is fueling the next wave of breakthrough startups, and TechNexus Venture Collaborative has been a longtime partner—offering industry access, hands-on support, and strategic investment in past winners like Natrion and Mesh++.
This is where bold ideas become real ventures. If you’re an investor looking for deal flow, an operator ready to mentor, or a company looking to engage with top-tier university talent, now’s the time to get involved. Let’s build the future—together. Contact the COZAD planning team to explore sponsorship, mentorship, and investment opportunities. Stephanie Halvorson Faraci
09 // Meta and UIC partner to advance AI capabilities
To help address the common pitfall of AI models “overthinking” certain queries (and expending extra compute as a result), a new technique presented by researchers at Meta AI and the University of Illinois Chicago trains AI models to allocate inference budgets based on the difficulty of the query.?
This results in faster responses, reduced costs, and better allocation of compute resources. The findings come against the backdrop of researchers warning that current AI models are hitting a wall. Companies are struggling to find quality training data and are exploring alternative methods to improve their models. Ideally, like humans, AI models should be able to tell when to give a direct answer and when to spend extra time and resources to reason before responding. Read more.
“AI and compute-intensive data analytics workloads are placing immense pressures on data centers around the globe, meaning efficiencies delivered by hardware and software are essential for enterprise data growth, performance, and costs.” — Chris Gladwin , Co-Founder & CEO, Ocient.
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