Five Midwest startups announced a combined $100 million in funding in the fourth week of October, up to October 23.
Chicago's Formic led with $50 million in new capital to take its robot-as-a-service business from task-specific factory automation into general-purpose robotics. It was followed by a $27 million seed round for Minneapolis-based Slingshot Insurance, a $12 million seed round for crop biologicals maker IMIO, which is building a new facility in Chicago, and a $10 million seed round for Ultra Security, an AI agent security startup based in Birmingham in metro Detroit. Precision medicine company Geneticure, which operates in Minnesota and Arizona, rounded out the week with a $1 million investment.
Five deals matches last week's count, which makes these two weeks the busiest stretch we've tracked since the six deals apiece in the weeks ending September 18th and September 25th. The dollars have moved further, to almost three times last week's $35.5 million and the largest weekly total since the week ending October 3rd, when Rising Point Capital's $325 million maiden fund lifted the headline to $512 million and the companies on the list took $187 million between them. Of the nine weeks since the end of August, only that week and the $297 million in the week ending September 18th have come in higher, with this week edging past the $89.6 million recorded at the end of September.
Here are the Midwest investments from across the great states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin that we've been able to track and verify this week, ending October 23rd, 2026.
As always, every company and investor below can also be found in our startups and investors database.
While you're here: If you'd like to make sure you're notified about any funds raised from the six states we cover, then make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter
Formic
Business Type: Advanced Robotics
Amount Raised/stage: $50m Series B and debt financing
What they do:
Secures $50 M to broaden from specialized factory automation to versatile robotics, leveraging AI and data from existing fleets to offer rapid, scalable robot‑as‑a‑service solutions.
Slingshot Insurance
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Business Type: Fintech
Amount Raised/stage: $27m seed round
What they do:
It provides AI‑driven software enabling vertical SaaS firms to embed and manage low‑value insurance policies at checkout, handling data, underwriting, claims, and regulatory compliance.
IMIO
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Business Type: Agtech & Food
Amount Raised/stage: $12m seed round
What they do:
Develops microbial biologicals that break down crop residues, releasing nutrients, boosting yields, reducing fertilizer use, and offering freeze‑dried formulations for row and produce crops.
Ultra Security
Business Type: Cybersecurity
Amount Raised/stage: $10m seed round
What they do:
Provides real-time visibility, guardrails, and policy enforcement for autonomous AI agents, enabling secure monitoring, control, and anomaly detection as they interact with corporate tools and data.
Geneticure
Location: Rochester, Minnesota
Business Type: Healthtech
Amount Raised/stage: $1m investment from Xcellerant Ventures
What they do:
Develops precision medicine tests using non‑invasive cheek swabs to analyze physiological pathways, predicting patient response to hypertension treatments and guiding medication selection, while scaling commercially and expanding clinical labs.
Want to know more?
Read the latest quarterly funding reports for each state here:
Illinois startup funding - Q3 2026
Indiana startup funding - Q2 2026
Ohio startup funding - Q3 2026
Michigan startup funding - Q3 2026
Minnesota startup funding - Q2 2026
Wisconsin startup funding - Q3 2026
While you're here: If you'd like to make sure you're notified about any funds raised from the six states we cover, then make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter
