TechNexus is a Venture Collaborative: a unique combination of businesses, corporate joint-ventures, private equity funds under management, and a fast-growing startup investment portfolio.

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Please enjoy TechNexus's monthly newsletter curated by our team of venture analysts and designed to keep you engaged with new perspectives from our growing ecosystem. We’ve incubated hundreds of ventures, spent years fostering collaborations between them and relevant corporations, and we’re now one of the most active venture investors in the country. We’ll share some of the things we’re learning with you each month in this newsletter.

If you’ve got feedback, we’d love to hear it. Please email Madelyn Rutter at madelyn@technexus.com.

Venture Collaboration is a smarter innovation model and a force multiplier poised to become the future of corporate R&D.

Rather than fearing outside innovation as a threat to the core business, venture collaboration allows established corporations to stay ahead of the development curve. And for many startups seeking capital what's often missing from traditional VC is access to critical strategic services. Early commercial validation, support from established partners, and a community of investors and strategists create the powerful venture collaboration approach. In this model, active involvement from corporate partners plays a crucial role.

Why Chicago venturing has been so successful

In Chicago, no single industry employs more than 14% of the workforce and the city is home to Fortune 500 companies in insurance, manufacturing, finance, retail, food, agriculture, healthcare, real estate, and more.

Venture Manager & Investor, Cristin Pacifico describes how this diversification has led to so much success for many Chicago ventures and the big opportunities B2B startups have with crucial customers across almost any sector.

Bonus content

Cristin recently sat down with Matt Castellini of Manifold Ventures for an episode of the Chicago Capital Podcast. They discussed the Chicago investing ecosystem, her experience at TechNexus and HomeChef, the exciting verticals she sees in the outdoor & recreation industry, and other 2021 trends. Listen here.

Our Portfolio Companies Making Headlines

We've made more than 140 investments in great ventures. Here’s what a few have been up to.

WELCOME! Rollick joins the TechNexus portfolio.

Rollick transforms how consumers buy and dealers sell in powersports, RV, and marine industries—disrupting how recreational retail is conducted in the digital age. The company does this by providing a marketing platform to connect consumers with transparent, upfront pricing and exclusive savings from a network of Certified Dealers. Learn more about Rollick.

Tonal adds $250 million of new funding in a Series E round. The company is now valued at $1.6 billion. 🦄 (TechCrunch, AlleyWatch)

A big congratulations to the entire team for the hard work & dedication to hit this significant milestone! Tonal was an early, foundational investment made by TechNexus in the fitness ecosystem because we recognized the power it would have to transform the industry.

And the fitness industry transformation doesn't stop there—see how Pro and College sports teams use Perch, a new workout device that's enabling ''smart'' weight racks. (Forbes)

Dysonics, a deep-tech audio venture that builds hardware and software workflows for 3D audio applications, gets acquired by Google. (TechNexus)

AI Reverie joins CB Insights AI 100 global list: The Artificial Intelligence Startups Redefining Industries for the second year! (CB Insights)

The Newsworthy's Erica Mandy writes about her recent interview with Mark Cuban. They discuss the popularity of podcasts and livestreams and share the best ways creators can use both to build up their following. (Business Insider | Listen to The Newsworthy)

Boxcast acquires Stream Monkey. This move helps the company keep up with the growing demand for more high-quality livestreaming. (ABC News Cleveland)

The podcast and social audio markets are booming. SpokenLayer and QCODE are two of the names on Business Insider's list of the audio ventures that could be acquired next...and who might buy them. (Business Insider)

Job Openings

Now hiring! Highlights from our portfolio companies & partners.  

• Director of Engineering - Artiphon
• Full Stack Developer - First Due
• Senior Product Designer - FitBod
• Influencer Marketing Coordinator - Catch Co.
• Customer Success Manager - Periodic

Interested in working for one of our portfolio companies or partners? Visit our careers page to view 300+ open positions.

good-reads

Links we'd send you if you were in our team's Slack workspace.

• 12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021 (CB Insights)
• The Seed 100: The best early-stage investors. Congratulations to TechNexus Venture Director, Kaitlyn Doyle for being featured on this esteemed list of investors. (Business Insider)
• Health care is the latest Big Tech battleground (The Hustle)
• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in the VC Industry (Deloitte's VC Human Capital Survey)

This Newsletter is for informational purposes only. This is not intended to be specific investment advice. All statements made regarding companies, securities or other financial information contained in the newsletter are not endorsements of any company or security or recommendations to buy or sell any security. Investors should determine for themselves whether a particular service or product is suitable for their investment needs or should seek such professional advice for their particular situation. No part of the content may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without the express written permission of TechNexus.