Illinois Startup News 2025: Year In Review

The year of stories in Illinois doesn’t have a single, unifying storyline. What it does have is real weight behind the thesis that Illinois can be a global stage for cutting-edge technology - especially quantum computing - while also becoming a practical testbed for artificial intelligence in the industries the country actually runs on.

Across the stories we published this year, the same themes kept showing up: capital investment paired with federal funding, programs that help early-stage startups survive long enough to become a successful startup, and the essential plumbing of incubators, accelerators, work cultures, and policy that turns ambition into business growth and economic opportunity.

Here then are the key themes that emerged across our coverage of the state of Illinois.

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1. Illinois is all-in on quantum 

This isn’t just about headlines for quantum startups. It’s the scaffolding: industry partners, research institutions, and physical footprints that signal how serious the state is on this topic.

In a grounded look at how Illinois is trying to become a national, and potentially global hub for quantum computing, our TechNexus contributor Jim Dallke talked about the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park and the ecosystem logic behind it: talent, proximity, collaboration, and time horizons measured in long term vision, not just the next quarter. As Illinois Governor Pritzker shared in Dallke’s article “‘I knew that quantum was on the verge,’” Pritzker recently told the Wall Street Journal, adding ‘quantum is an area where there was still an opportunity to be the leader.’”

Elsewhere, the University of Chicago and IBM launched the first Quantum Startup Accelerator. This was a practical how-to story: programs, infrastructure, and the on-ramp for eligible startups through Duality, plus the way corporate resources - including a global system’s venture capital arm style of support via venture activity - can help accelerate commercialization.

Then there was the ‘deal flow meets advanced research’ angle of the University of Chicago Launch Quantum Cohort story: 27 deep-tech companies, heavy on quantum computing, with IBM involved and a clear focus on customer validation and early market engagement.

And finally, in a look further afield beyond their own local ecosystem, Chicago’s quantum bet wasn’t framed as a city flex but positioned as a regional magnet for talent and capital in “What does Chicago's evolving tech scene mean for the Midwest?”

2. Artificial intelligence in Illinois is about deployment in key industries

Illinois’ AI story this year was about data science, analytics platform realities, and the unsexy truth: deployment speed often depends on org size, systems, and culture.

A Chicago-anchored but Midwest-scoped play to convene operators and industry leaders around applied artificial intelligence - especially in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, robotics - was the subject of our story featuring the Omaxn AI Forum, the brainchild of Pete Wilkins from Hyde Park Angels. As he shared in the article, the goal of the forum was to “promote AI innovation that enables the Midwest to thrive both economically and intellectually, ultimately shaping a better regional future.”

The National Science Federation awarded $15 million to University of Illinois lab, in an example of federal funding meeting advanced research. UIUC’s Molecule Maker Lab Institute received the renewed NSF support to build AI tools for molecular science think platforms, agents, and a data-driven approach to discovery.

Culture as infrastructure was highlighted in the fact that Illinois companies showed up as innovative leaders in the annual list from Fast Company on the topic, including Motorola’s long-horizon investment cadence in AI-driven tools.

There was also reinforcement of Chicago’s edge being the concentration of legacy-industry demand that can actually buy and deploy B2B AI. In other words, the sort of environment where an ai-native company can grow into enterprise scale. 

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3. Policy and programs that act like a co-founder

A lot of Illinois stories this year detailed the boring but necessary work of government services, grant programs, and regulatory clarity. That includes the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) showing up as a recurring character in the state’s innovation story.

Back in July there was the direct investment of $7 million through the DCEO into incubator capacity across the state, explicitly tied to growth sectors like life science, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, and clean energy; the kind of areas in which Illinois wants to win. “The objective to modernize and revitalize technology incubators statewide, nurturing startups and positioning Illinois as a leader in emergent industries,” we wrote at the time.

There were also regulatory changes, with Illinois moving to reduce crypto fraud risk while also building rules for digital asset businesses. 

Meanwhile, federal dollars also showed up, when the NSF awarded $15 million to the University of Illinois lab to strengthen Illinois’ research-to-market pipeline.

And finally another DCEO appearance when Boston startup Pure Lithium relocated to Chicago, the state government offering incentives as part of a manufacturing push tied to energy transition.

These stories demonstrate how the state stacked incentives upon infrastructure and added some protections to boost their local innovation economy.

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4. Clean energy: product, grid and manufacturing

The clean energy storyline showed up in Illinois as energy efficiency pressure, electrification, grid-scale reality, and the kind of manufacturing moves that come with real funding and timelines.

For starters, the state was a key contributor as US Energy storage capacity reached 5.6 GW in Q2 2025: with grid and residential storage momentum across the United States, Illinois was named among the primary contributors to residential growth.

Local corporate behemoth John Deere shows up with a story on electrification in a category that’s usually stuck in gas-engine inertia, and one that most of us can relate to: the humble lawnmower got removable EGO Batteries thanks to Chevron.

And food tech met sustainability as part of the Chicago Venture Summit 2025: Future of Food. In example of how innovation and clean energy themes can collide in a very Chicago way.

These stories indicated how Illinois can lean into the idea that the energy transition is also an economic transition: jobs, facilities, supply chains, and the flywheel effects that create new businesses.

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5. Chicago wants to be a platform city: is it?

Some places want to be a “startup city”. Illinois has one advantage over other states in the Midwest: Chicago is big enough to be a regional center of gravity in ANY industry. Having said that, this also means it is a city and a state that has a greater responsibility, and sees itself as such. But the balance between corporate dominance and new, innovative solutions with an entrepreneurial economy is a difficult one to strike. We tried to communicate these themes in 2025. 

What does Chicago's evolving tech scene mean for the Midwest? Is it a playbook built on corporate-startup collaboration, with Chicago positioned as a growth engine other Midwest hubs can tap but necessarily compete with?

Chicago-based companies demonstrated an “innovation culture lives here” signal, in our story about Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators while Techstars came back to the region through Chicago as applications opened for spring 2026. This was a reminder that founders still want structured pathways: terms, cohorts, and an accelerator pipeline.

And finally, our contributor Landon Campbell shared his resources page for Chicago, the most “community-as-product” story we may have run all year. His free online platform aimed to make the ecosystem legible for founders and anyone trying to find investors, grants, and the right rooms. As he said (and we couldn’t think of a better or more appropriate way to end this piece than this): “startup communities thrive on mentorship freely given, not just capital or connections.” 

Amen.

To close this out this story (and to make sure nothing is missing from the complete Illinois story in 2025, here are the fundraising stories for Illinois startups from our site year, shared around their respective industry. See you in 2026 Illinois...

ElectronX secures $30m Series A for power derivatives. 

Kin raised $50 million at a 2 Billion valuation for home insurance 

Zerohash raised $104 million for crypto infrastructure

Ocra scored $5 million for AI-assisted parking infrastructure

AppFusion raised 6.5 million to digitize the auto salvage market