Pritzker Group Venture Capital helps entrepreneurs build market-leading technology companies at every stage of their growth. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has worked side-by-side with entrepreneurs at more than 100 companies, building partnerships based on trust and integrity. Its proprietary capital structure allows for tremendous flexibility, and our experienced team of investment professionals and entrepreneurs offers companies a vast network of strategic relationships and guidance.  Successful exits in recent years include Fleetmatics (NYSE: FLTX), SinglePlatform (acquired by Constant Contact), Zinch (acquired by Chegg), Playdom (acquired by Disney), LeftHand Networks (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), and TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster).

Pritzker Group Venture Capital

Techstars is a global platform that provides investment and innovation. Through the Techstars Worldwide Entrepreneur Network, founders and their teams connect with other entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporate partners who will help their companies grow. Techstars operates four divisions: Techstars Mentorship-Driven Accelerator Program supercharges success and Techstars Startup Programs inspire, educate, and connect entrepreneurs. Techstars Venture Capital Fund invests in innovative and disruptive companies. Techstars Corporate Innovation Partnerships help brands create products and services. Techstars' accelerator portfolio includes more than 1,000 companies with a market cap of $8.1 billion.

Techstars

Battery Ventures is a investment firm that focuses on technology. It invests in potentially, category-defining businesses in markets including application software, IT infrastructure technologies, consumer-internet and mobile services, and industrial technologies.

Battery Ventures

Headline (formerly e.ventures) is a Venture Capital firm actively on the ground in 7 cities around the world. It invests across geographies, leading rounds at every stage. The firm's Early Stage Funds are based in the US, Europe, Asia, and Brazil, and invest locally. Its San Francisco-based Growth Fund invests globally from Series B and beyond, working in collaboration with their Early Stage Teams. The sizes and locations of these funds make it possible for them to see local trends up close, identify winning founders, and lead rounds at every stage. Sonos, The RealReal, Creditas, Sorare, Pismo, AppFolio, goPuff, Acorns, Farfetch, Segment, Bumble, and Yeahka are among the stars in Headline’s world. Headline was founded in San Francisco, California in 1998.

Headline

We're an early stage venture capital firm focused on equity investments in companies with dramatic growth potential, primarily in technology and highly-scalable services businesses. Our focus investment areas are digital health, fintech, consumer software, and enterprise software.

OCA Ventures

Techstars Ventures (formerly Bullet Time Ventures) is the venture capital arm of Techstars. Bullet Time Ventures is a $150 million fund based in Boulder, Colorado.

Techstars Ventures

Lightbank VC is a $700M AUM venture fund that invests in early-stage vertically focused AI, consumer, enterprise, healthcare, crypto, fintech and climate companies. It focuses on pre-seed, seed and Series A opportunities where they write initial checks between $250k - $5m. They have invested in over 150 companies such as Tempus, Udemy, Fiverr (NYSE: FVRR), Sprout Social (NYSE: SPRT), Boom Supersonic, Tastytrade (acq. $1B+), Extend, Attain, Paytient and Expel.

Lightbank

500 Global is a multi-stage venture capital firm with $2.4 billion in assets under management. The firm invests in founders who are building fast-growing technology companies. It focuses on markets where technology, innovation, and capital can generate long-term value and economic growth. 500 Global collaborates with key stakeholders and provides advisory services to governments on fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems to support startups. The firm has invested in over 5,000 founders and more than 2,800 companies across 80+ countries. It has funded over 35 companies valued at more than $1 billion and over 160 companies valued at over $100 million, including those that are private, public, or have exited. The team consists of over 190 members based in more than 25 countries, with experience as entrepreneurs, investors, and operators from leading technology companies.

500 Global

500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. It is one of the most active venture capital firms in the world. It's headquartered in San Francisco, California.

500 Startups

Chicago Ventures partners closely with exceptional entrepreneurs building companies in undercapitalized high-potential ecosystems.

Chicago Ventures

Draper Associates is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in industry-transforming companies. They invest globally, in great teams of people creating revolutionary companies in new media, gaming, SaaS, cloud, new finance, IOT, and mobile. Their portfolio companies disrupting markets in the tens of billions and are on a clear path to later rounds of fundraising. Draper Associates encourages entrepreneurs to drive their businesses to greatness, to transform industries with new technologies, and to build platforms for extraordinary growth, jobs, and wealth creation. It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Mateo, CA, USA.

Draper Associates

Bullpen is a venture capital fund that invests in post-seed capital into early-stage companies. Bullpen Capital launched 10 years ago, the goal was to back overlooked entrepreneurs left behind by the latest Silicon Valley fads. The firm's portfolio spans all categories from fantasy sports to data center equipment to restaurant SaaS. Bullpen was founded in 2010 by Paul Martino and is based in San Francisco, California, United States.

Bullpen Capital

Lakewest Venture Partners is an affiliate of Lakewest, Inc., a real estate and private equity company. In its first several years, Lakewest's investments and participation in companies ranged from passive interest at $50,000-$100,000 to lead seed-stage investments in excess of $1,000,000 with board involvement. Since partnering with Dundee Venture Capital, Lakewest and Dundee now look to make lead seed-stage investments from $250,000-$750,000 in high-growth, early-stage technology companies. It is led by Buzz Ruttenberg, David Mann, and Jonathan McCulloch and was formed in 2013 to pursue seed and early-stage investment opportunities primarily in Chicago.

Lakewest Venture Partners

Born out of a love for building startups and a passion for backing entrepreneurs with heart, Corazon Capital (spanish for “heart”), a leading Chicago-based venture fund, brings a coastal approach to Seed and Series A investing. With a rare blend of investing experience and operating expertise, Corazon provides unusually pragmatic, actionable counsel to the entrepreneurs it supports. Corazon believes that the best entrepreneurs and the smartest VCs will intentionally solicit both financial and operating investors in their syndicates, with Corazon recognized across geographies for its deep operating knowledge and reach inside and outside of Chicago.  Corazon’s co-founders, Sam Yagan and Steve Farsht, have accomplished track records as investors and operators. Sam co-founded SparkNotes, eDonkey, and OKCupid before posting up as CEO of Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH) through its IPO, and most recently taking the reins as the CEO of Shoprunner. As a General Partner at Norwest Equity Partners, Steve participated in its growth from five to twenty-five investment professionals. He honed his operating chops as CEO of DCM Services, an NEP portfolio company. After moving to Chicago, Steve immersed himself in the startup ecosystem, first as COO of Tap.me and then co-CEO of Techstars Chicago.   Upon launching its second fund, Corazon added Phil Schwarz, the former CMO of Tinder, where he was responsible for growth, brand and retention marketing on a global basis. Previously, Phil was Head of Growth Initiatives at Match Group and co-founder of the Kaplan/Techstars EdTech accelerator.  Together, Corazon’s principals have founded six companies through to four exits, served as CEOs of companies worth over $5 billion (including taking a company public), executed over $1 billion in acquisitions, invested in excess of $300 million in private companies, and held over 30 board seats.

Corazon Capital

We are value-added investors basically limiting our investments to areas where the team has personal experience, industry connections and specific expertise in the marketplace, business processes, customers, competition, technology and/or regulatory environments.   We will be hands-on, active participants (with Board or Advisor seats) in the management and operation of the portfolio companies and any incremental compensation which is earned or provided as a result of such services will be contributed to the fund as well.   We will focus on industries (insurance, automotive, media and marketing, data management and analytics, customer satisfaction management, technology and education) where we have spent many years working and where we know both the past, present and hopefully the future directions that these industries will take.   We believe there are great opportunities which the radical changes in these industries (created by disruptive innovators) will create for fast movers and early adopters with the experience to offset the most critical risks that these new enterprises pose which are (a) the execution risks that accompany rapid growth combined with (b) the need for quick decision making in an environment of constant change.

G2T3V

Blossom Street Ventures invests in companies with run rate revenue of $3mm to $30mm, with year over year growth of 50%+ depending on revenue.  They lead or follow in growth rounds and special situations like inside rounds, small rounds, rushed rounds, corralling investors with our term sheet, extensions, and cap table clean up.  They can commit in 3 weeks and our check is $1mm to $4mm.

Blossom Street Ventures

Insight Partners is a global software investor that partners with growth-stage technology and software companies. Insight has a deep focus in Fintech, Cybersecurity, AI/ML, DevOps, and Healthcare sectors. Across their people and their portfolio, they encourage a culture around a core belief growth equals opportunity. As of December 31, 2022, the firm has over $75B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 750 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO.

Insight Partners

Monkfish Equity is the investment vehicle of the trivago founders. TRVG was started in 2004 and went IPO with over 1 b$ in revenue on NASDAQ in 2016. It was then labelled one of the first real Unicorns in Germany.  As Co-investors, with a focus on later stage phases, they invest in companies which can benefit from their entrepreneurial experience. As “low maintenance” investors, they offer the leeway that entrepreneurs need to build their businesses. So far, the Monkfish team has invested in over 50 start-ups in Europe, Asia, the US and South Africa.

Monkfish Equity

Levy Family Partners is an investment enterprise that owns restaurants that operates concessions at various stadiums and arenas.

Levy Family Partners

GFC is a venture fund that supports entrepreneurs at various stages of business development. It focuses on global markets and seeks individuals with innovative ideas. The fund evaluates opportunities based on potential impact and feasibility.

Global Founders Capital

Autotech Ventures is a venture capital firm that manages more than $400 million to invest in start-ups that aim to generate financial returns in the vast $3 trillion ground transportation industry. Connected, autonomous, shared and electrified vehicles and related mobility services have created tectonic shifts in the incumbent ground transportation industry. Vehicle manufacturers, parts suppliers, dealerships, repair shops, parking operators, ground logistics firms, and road infrastructure providers are all being impacted by ground transportation startups. Autotech Ventures provides startup companies with 1) capital to execute on their business plan, 2) access to its industry contacts - including dozens of ground transportation corporate investors who together represent a global market capitalization of over $500 billion dollars, 3) up-to-the-minute market intelligence on the ground transport landscape, 4) support in recruiting ground transportation industry talent, and 5) fundraising support to raise additional capital from other financially-motivated investors and strategic investors. Start-ups typically innovate quickly then scale slowly, while corporations typically innovate slowly then scale quickly. Autotech Ventures brings startups and corporations together to bridge this gap and build a new transportation future.

Autotech Ventures

MATH Venture Partners is an early to middle-stage fund managed by a seasoned team of hands-on investors and operators. We look for entrepreneurial teams that have customer acquisition as part of their core DNA. It is this maniacal focus, deep appreciation for process and exceptional talent that makes them stand out. MATH forms deep and personal partnerships with entrepreneurs. We have built and scaled many large companies to successful exits. Both of our Managing Directors are serial entrepreneurs and teachers at heart. We love to partner with coachable founding teams that strive to constantly improve. Let's build something great together.

MATH Venture Partners

Macquarie Capital Funds (Europe) Ltd. provides banking, financial, advisory, investment, and funds management services to institutional, corporate, and retail clients. It offers specialist and the United Kingdom investment funds, real estate capital, and renewable energy investment services; corporate and real estate structured finance advisory services; and financial services, including institutional stock broking and research, equity structured finance and derivatives, treasury and commodities activities, environmental market, lending and asset financing, and business lending. Macquarie Capital Funds (Europe) Ltd. was formerly known as Macquarie Investment Management (UK) Limited and changed its name to Macquarie Capital Funds (Europe) Ltd.

Macquarie Capital

Alpha Partners is the Pro-Rata Co-Investment Fund. We are known as the VC's VC. Recently, we have provided over $100 million in growth capital to early stage VC firms to double down in their leading companies. 80% of category leading technology companies have small, early stage investors as their first funders. Due to capital constraints, early stage funds lack the follow-on capital necessary to double down in their winners. Alpha partners with VC firms to provide on-demand capital for their follow-ons.  We share up to half of the economics on co-investments. Since 2011, Alpha also serves as a advisor to Pritzker Group.

Alpha Partners

Union Grove Venture Partners is a private equity firm that provides investments to venture funds.  It was founded in 2014 by Patrick Cairns, John Spilman, and Greg Bohlen and is based in North Carolina.

Union Grove Venture Partners

50 South Capital is an alternatives asset management firm designed to meet the core strategic needs of investors seeking access to hedge funds, private equity, and real assets solutions.  50 South Capital is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northern Trust Corporation.

50 South Capital

Gaingels is a venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, investing in companies with LGBT+ founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in more established companies resolved on building more inclusive teams, with a global portfolio of 130+ companies and $70M in deployed investment capital to date.  The Gaingels network also actively supports its portfolio in identifying and recruiting diverse talent to their C-suite and board leadership teams and fosters a vibrant global community of industry leaders, investors, operators, and entrepreneurs who share a common goal for positive social change through business and successful investments.

Gaingels

SpotHero

SpotHero is the leading & only independent consumer marketplace for parking in North America.

SpotHero is a Chicago-based parking reservation service where drivers can locate, reserve, and pay for short-term and long-term parking in lots and private garages located in cities, airports, stadiums, and other event spaces. As of March 2022, SpotHero had a network of 7,500 garages providing parking options for more than 20 million drivers in 45+ cities across 300 locations in the US and Canada.

Information to create a more efficient, cleaner and safer way to travel in the city of the future

Smart Mobility Information

Book a parking place on Google Maps directly with SpotHero

Alphabet

To integrate SpotHero's parking reservation service into Google Maps and Google Search, enabling users to find and book parking spots conveniently. 

Startups offering mobile apps for drivers to locate, book, and pay for parking

Apple

Announced a new partnership with parking app SpotHero to handle all navigation through the company's in-house maps app. The new feature will allow Apple users to search for a destination in the Apple Maps app and then select 'More' and 'Parking.' and then directed to the SpotHero website without leaving Apple Maps. Users can search for nearby parking and reserve a space using SpotHero’s secure payment option,

SpotHero, the digital parking leader in North America, brings parking to the display screen of car with Apple CarPlay. Drivers can use SpotHero with CarPlay to find, book and pay for off-street parking in over 300 cities across North America without touching a phone.

SpotHero is a Chicago-based parking reservation service where drivers can locate, reserve, and pay for short-term and long-term parking in lots and private garages located in cities, airports, stadiums, and other event spaces. As of March 2022, SpotHero had a network of 7,500 garages providing parking options for more than 20 million drivers in 45+ cities across 300 locations in the US and Canada.SpotHero’s competitive advantage over other parking reservation apps is its flexible software, which has enabled it to secure more than 900 distribution partnerships and integrations. This makes it compatible with close to 40 different points of sales (POS) systems, including Apple Pay and Google Pay; expense tracking software, such as Concur, Chrome River, and Expensify; and other integrations with several mobility operators including Waze, Car2go, and Moovit.In January 2020, SpotHero launched Spot IQ, an AI-powered tool that claims to offer the most extensive real-time parking demand data in North America, which allows operators to set market-driven dynamic pricing. The firm claims that its operators have experienced an average revenue increase of over 40%, while being able to leverage its relationships with operators to provide discounted pricing, which it can pass on to drivers. In 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the firm also enhanced its contactless payment option to include contactless redemption.SpotHero has made three acquisitions, the most recent being in September 2020, when it acquired Rover Parking to drive its expansion to the Canadian market.Key customers and partnershipsIn November 2022, the company partnered with Lyft, a mobility solution provider, to help its users find a parking spot. SpotHero&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15595?industryIds=66">partnered with Apple Maps,</a> to introduce a new parking option in 8,000+ locations across North America (January 2023), and with&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/34559">Google</a> to integrate parking reservation services into Google Maps and Google Search for users in North America (October 2024).

<div>
 
 Replica is an urban planning and simulation tool that helps city planners and transport operators assess current and future transport requirements. The firm gathers data including mobility metrics covering a variety of modes of transport, demographics, land use, and economic metrics from several sources including de-identified data gathered from smartphones of commuters. 
 
 
 Replica&rsquo;s unique offering is a city simulation model that applies proprietary synthetic population and behavior models powered by AI and machine learning to create large-scale simulations or &ldquo;digital twins&rdquo; of the transportation and economic patterns of a city. In 2021, the firm claimed to have grown its activity-based travel demand simulator to cover the entire US, creating the first nationwide travel model of its kind.
 
 
 Replica started off (in 2018) as a project of Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, to experiment with smart city projects. In September 2019, the project was spun-off from its parent as a standalone company, while Sidewalk Labs remained an investor in the firm. 
 
 
 In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the firm created a public dashboard and trend analysis tool providing weekly data on mobility, consumer spending, and public health to monitor the progression of the pandemic and the economic recovery. 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 As of February 2022, the firm partnered with public agencies and private firms in the US, including the Chicago Transit Authority, Illinois Department of Transportation, Caltrans, and Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 In April 2021, Replica raised USD 41 million in Series B funding led by Founders Fund. Replica planned to use this to expand its service offerings to include forecasting and scenario modeling tools.
 
</div>

Replica

<div>
 
 Cowlines is a transport planning app that provides information covering multiple modes of travel including bus, subway, tram, bikeshare, and ferries. The app is free for commuters on the Apple App Store and is also available to transport operators as a white label product. 
 
 
 The app was developed by Greenlines Technology, a developer of human-based decarbonization solutions, built on its proprietary patent-pending mobility carbon engine (MCE). The firm claimed that since 2019, it had generated revenue from verified carbon offsets produced by commuters, using its transport apps when they choose low-carbon transport modes such as public transit, micromobility, and ride-hailing services. 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 As of February 2022, the app covers 62 cities in the US and Canada. The firm also licenses its MCE where transport operators can incorporate it into their own transport apps. A case in point is, Loopshare, a micromobility ride-sharing firm that entered a licensing agreement with Greenlines Technology in January 2020.
 
</div>

Cowlines

Founded in Ukraine before subsequently moving its operations to Spain, Discoperi provides AI-powered smart vision technologies for improving road safety. It developed “system eye,” a portable smart camera equipped with vision technology that gathers and analyzes data in real-time, providing an in-vehicle road safety alert system. Its vision technology system can also be integrated into third-party in-vehicle internet of things (IoT) devices. The system is built on blockchain technology, which gathers and stores data in a privacy-preserving manner. Discoperi also claimed it is working to bring its system eye service to smartphones without the need for any additional hardware. The firm’s solutions are targeted at drivers, insurance companies, transport agencies, driving schools, and city municipalities.In 2020, the firm also launched “City AI,” a B2B solution for public agencies, such as police, city planners, and road maintenance workers, for mobility data gathering, analyzing, predicting, and identifying issues to improve road safety. Its vision technology can be integrated into any existing roadside cameras and it claims its system has a 96%+ accuracy in identifying 3,000+ vehicle models.Key customers and partnershipsThe firm reported in 2020 that it generated its first revenue by converting two pilot projects in Ukraine into paying customers. In 2021, it planned to enter one additional market while growing its presence in the Ukraine market.Funding and financialsBoth its products were at the pilot stage and in November 2018, it received a grant of USD 71,400 from the European Commission to develop its System EYE platform. Since then, the firm raised an undisclosed amount in March 2019 in a pre-seed funding round.In May 2022, the firm was selected to receive support from Google as part of its USD 5 million Ukraine support fund. Discoperi will be amongst the first 17 startups to receive equity free cash contributions, Google Cloud credits and individual mentorship as part of this initiative.

Discoperi

<div>
 
 Nauto provides an AI-powered driver and fleet safety platform. The platform applies computer vision and proprietary algorithms to its AI-enabled dual-facing dash camera. This monitors driver behavior and vehicle surroundings to predict high-risk events and send real-time in-vehicle alerts (IVA) to prevent pedestrian collisions, speeding and intersection violations, and distracted driving. In November 2019, the firm introduced self-coaching tools for drivers to improve distracted driving and manager-led coaching modules for commercial fleet managers. The firm claimed its tools had helped reduce distraction events by more than 35% on average. 
 
 The firm claimed to be the only AI-enabled platform that impacted driver behavior in real-time, which it claimed has led to the avoidance of 70,000+ collisions, resulting in a ~USD 300 million savings. 
 
 
 In November 2021, Nauto introduced a driver drowsiness detector system that monitors real-time multiple drowsiness indicators such as yawning, blink rate, drooping shoulders, etc. which will trigger in-vehicle alert (IVA) systems when a certain threshold is reached. 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 As of February 2022, Nauto&rsquo;s platform was used by 800+ brands including Allegiant, Flexibus, Sprint, Edge, Phillips. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19521">
 In June 2023,
 </a>
 Nauto secured a strategic investment from Stellantis Ventures, the venture capital arm of automaker Stellantis, to extend its safety benefits to more light commercial vehicles and, eventually, to consumer vehicles. The firm has also attracted investor interest from automakers like General Motor Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, and BMW iVentures. It is believed that the firm's data can be leveraged for the development of self-driving cars in the future.
 
</div>

Nauto

ParkNav is a web-based parking discovery platform that provides drivers with up-to-date on-street and off-street parking availability and parking restriction information.The firm’s edge is in the range of data sources it uses, including vehicle sensors, cell phone towers, satellite imagery, and proprietary sources, coupled with AI and big data analytics. According to the firm, it is recognized as a leader in the industry for its data accuracy, claiming an 80% precision rate for every city in its coverage.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2022, the platform covers 1,000+ cities across Europe and North America.

ParkNav

Startups that offer mobile apps that provide live information for route planning via multiple modes of transport

Startups offering management platforms to monitor, analyze, and automate traffic control

Startups offering management platforms that provide information and analytics to optimize route planning and usage for mass transport

Startups offering mobile and in-vehicle apps that provide real-time alerts on road hazards and traffic conditions

Startups offering platforms to monitor, manage and enforce parking services

SMI tools promote sustainability and aim to reduce carbon emissions globally

Solutions like smart parking and traffic management use IOTs in vehicles and roadside hardware

Connecting smart mobility systems through peer-to-peer, vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity to promote sustainable transportation

5G and Edge computing have enabled the emergence of traffic management solutions

Transport planning and smart parking apps provide transparency on transport options and parking spots

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 Google has collaborated with SpotHero, a parking startup, to incorporate parking reservation services into Google Maps and Google Search for users in the US and Canada.
 This integration enables users to discover and reserve parking spots at over 8,000 locations directly from Maps and Search. Users have the ability to book parking ahead of time and filter choices for EV charging, wheelchair accessibility, and valet services.
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 This partnership expands Google's parking-related features, following a previous <a href="https: 
//parkmobile.io/newsroom/parkmobile-teams-up-with-google-offering-the-ability-to-pay-for-parking-right-from-google-maps/"> collaboration with ParkMobile </a> for in-app parking payments in 2021.

SpotHero

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