While many of us were focused on Labor Day weekend (who can blame you?) a number of Chicago tech companies were busy with new expansions, fundings and other announcements. Here’s what you may have missed from the last week. This is the Built In Chicago weekly refresh.
HAAS Alert received a $5M investment. The Chicago-based startup has built technology that lets emergency vehicles, road construction crews and other fleets alert nearby vehicles. While sirens and flashing lights have been used on police cars and ambulances for decades, this new technology sends alerts right to drivers’ vehicle systems, making it easier for them to notice. Over 750 organizations use HAAS Alert, sending over 1 billion alerts collectively. The company hopes to use this new funding to hit 10 billion alerts sent by 2022. [Built In Chicago]
CircleIt raises $5.1M in its Series A. The funding round will help the company expand after a recent growth in user adoption. CircleIt has developed a platform that allows families to securely store memories — whether that’s a note, picture, video or audio message — and share them with their loved ones. The platform also allows people to send virtual cards or physical gifts to their loved ones at any point in the future. So a grandparent could send a bouquet of flowers to a grandchild’s wedding, even if it’s decades away. [Built In Chicago]
CHICAGO TECH QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Life360 completes its acquisition of Chicago-based Jiobit. After being announced back in April, Life360’s acquisition of Jiobit finally went through. As a result, the combined entity is now valued at over $1 billion. On top of this, Jiobit announced that it would go on a hiring spree, doubling the size of its company over the next 12 months. The company has already hired for several key roles, adding a new CTO, VP of hardware engineering, VP of customer experience and head of people & culture. [Jiobit]
Today at Apple Creative Studios launches in Little Village, Chicago. The Mac and iPhone maker announced a program earlier this year where it’ll provide mentoring and creative skills training to underrepresent youths in cities across the world. For its Chicago program, Apple is teaming up with Yollocalli Arts Reach, Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy and the Chicago Architecture Biennial to provide young people with training in photography and illustration. The six-week program will kick off on September 18. [Built In Chicago]
Vivid Seats makes a handful of additions to its leadership team. This includes Dan Timm as chief operating officer, Tyra Neal as chief marketing officer and David Morris as general counsel. The executives bring experience working for companies like Chatham Technologies, Shinola and TripAdvisor. They will all report to Vivid Seats CEO Stan Chia. [Globe Newswire]
