Funding
Sep 12
Midwest startup funding, week ending September 11, 2026: three rounds worth $53.8m, led by Impossible Objects' $40m Series B, plus Harmoni and Concorda.
Opinion
A VC explains what "too early," "keep me posted," and "not in our thesis" really mean, and what a founder should do after each one.
People
After being held at gunpoint while working a student job, Nikhil Kolli built an AI security company driven by a resilience inherited from his father.
Digital Reference founder Ryan Stevens on leaving D.C. to build in Michigan, what AI has done to resume screening, and the trade-offs of a smaller pond.
By
Aria Spears
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September 12, 2026
Midwest startup funding, week ending September 4, 2026: a thin week of three rounds, led by Stack Health's $21m seed, plus battleface and Silicon Prairie.
26 Midwest companies cracked the top 250 of the 2026 Inc. 5000 — led by Chicago's Loop at 14,831% growth. See the fastest-growing businesses across nine states.
Inside MN:EVC's first summit Minnesota: early-career investors learn how AI, founder expectations, and platform work are reshaping venture capital.
The 10th year of the largest self-reported startup dataset from High Alpha and Visible: and Midwest responses matter more than ever.
A new UW-Madison CROWE report finds Wisconsin manufacturers have booked $1.6B in AI-related orders — and warns power is the main limit on the state's data center boom.
How Midwest startup founders in Michigan and Ohio manage financial, operational, and market pressure — hard-won lessons on resilience from the trenches.
Voxel51's Brian Moore is building the Databricks of physical AI from Columbus, Ohio. How an open-source project became a $50M-backed infrastructure company.
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Ecosystem
