Three Midwest startups announced rounds in the second week of October, raising $6.6 million in disclosed funding between them. Detroit's Bloom led with a $3.6 million seed round for its marketplace connecting hardware companies with U.S. manufacturers. It was followed by $3 million for Thrixel, a Chicago 3D generation startup founded by a University of Chicago professor, and an undisclosed Series A for SecondSight in Bloomington.
Three deals matches last week's count. The dollars are another matter. At $6.6 million, this is the smallest disclosed weekly total in that run, less than a third of the $22.25 million in the week ending September 4th, which had been the low point we've tracked in these weekly reports until now. It is also a long way from last week's $187 million that went to startups once Rising Point Capital Management's maiden fund is set aside.
Each of the three comes from a different state, and each unsurprisingly applies AI to an established industry: hardware supply chains in Detroit, 3D content for games in Chicago and insurance underwriting in Indiana.
Bloom's round was led by SNAK Venture Partners, a marketplace-focused investor, with Flyover Capital and Mana Ventures joining three Detroit backers: Detroit Venture Partners, Invest Detroit Ventures and the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund. Regular readers may know co-founder Chris Nolte from his excellent Future in the Making videos on rebuilding American manufacturing, which we carry on these pages.
Thrixel was founded by Rana Hanocka, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Chicago. Its $3 million came from Sierra Ventures, MFV Partners, Harper Court Ventures (the University of Chicago-focused fund) and Z5 Capital, with AI and computer graphics researcher Jon Barron and former EA executive Matt Bilbey also taking part. Alongside the round, the company introduced Build World, a workflow in which creators work with an AI coding agent to build playable 3D experiences for Roblox, Three.js, Unity and Unreal Engine.
SecondSight closed its Series A on October 5th and named insurance veteran Jamie Bouloux, formerly CEO of Ryan Financial Lines and Celerity Risk, as president, though it didn't disclose the size of the round or name its investors. The company came out of stealth in October 2022 with a $3 million seed round led by Tim Crown, co-founder of Insight Enterprises, alongside Indiana Ventures, Cook Ventures and Flywheel Fund. It says the new funding will pay for product development and hiring as it takes its platform beyond its cyber insurance roots, and that Bouloux is the first of several senior insurance hires it will announce in the coming weeks.
Here then are the investments from across the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin that we've been able to track and verify this week, ending October 9th, 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
Bloom
Business Type: Artificial Intelligence
Amount Raised/stage: $3.6m seed round
What they do:
Runs a marketplace where drone, robotics and mobility hardware companies post manufacturing, freight, warehousing and service needs, then compare bids, book and pay matched U.S. providers.
Read more here and here.
Thrixel
Business Type: Artificial Intelligence
Amount Raised/stage: $3m inception funding
What they do:
Generates structured, editable 3D models from text or images, with parts automatically grouped and labeled, for use in the browser or through coding agents and game engines.
SecondSight
Location: Bloomington, Indiana
Business Type: Artificial Intelligence
Amount Raised/stage: Undisclosed Series A
What they do:
Builds an AI operating system for insurers, using quantitative models trained on each customer's own policy, premium, claims and exposure data to help underwriters price risk and manage portfolios.
Read more here and here.
Want to know more?
Read the latest quarterly funding reports for each state here:
Illinois startup funding - Q2 2026
Indiana startup funding - Q2 2026
Ohio startup funding - Q2 2026
Michigan startup funding - Q2 2026
Minnesota startup funding - Q2 2026
Wisconsin startup funding - Q2 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
