Sections

Portfolio News Thought Leadership Industry News

Portfolio News

November 8, 2022

Under Recognized in list of Best Products & Services for ISOs & Banks (2022)

Under was recognized in OvationCXM's best products and services list for 2022.

August 2, 2022

Golden Section Invests in SquareStack

Golden Section of Houston has invested in Chicago-based start-up SquareStack to drive expansion and growth.

July 14, 2022

Virtual Environments Platform ‘Gamerjibe’ Rebrands as ‘Inverse’ to Build the Onramp to the Metaverse

Gamerjibe, a 3D virtual environments platform, is rebranding and has changed its name to ‘Inverse’ as part of its strategy to bring more brands and their audiences into the metaverse.

March 29, 2022

SquareStack Announces Partnership with G2

SquareStack, the Business Apps Command Center for Small Business, and G2, which provides direct user software reviews, have partnered to bring G2’s world class review platform to SquareStack’s Small Business members and subscribers.

February 7, 2022

Propellant Ventures Makes an Investment Into Fintech Company, Under

Propellant Ventures is excited to announce that we made an investment into Chicago-based Under, which provides a unified platform that automates customer onboarding, document completion, identify identification, and submission for end users, brokers, and financial institutions.

January 25, 2022

SupplyHive Mentioned in Built in Chicago's "The Future 5 of Chicago Tech, Q1 2022"

Chicago has a number of big name corporations and well-known companies that over the years have helped shape the identity of this Midwestern metropolis. SupplyHive was recognized as a company to watch in Chicago.

December 21, 2021

SupplyHive Named a Cool Vendor in 2021 Gartner "Cool Vendors in Strategic Sourcing Technology" Report

SupplyHive™, a Chicago-based innovative provider of Supplier Performance Management (SPM) technology, announced today that it has been recognized in the 2021 list of Cool Vendors in the "Cool Vendors in Strategic Sourcing" 1 report published by Gartner.

December 11, 2021

Gamerjibe Recognized as one Founder Institute's Top 50 Fastest Growing Alumni of 2021

Founder Institute Alumni have raised over $1.5 billion in funding and are building businesses that matter across 6 continents. Gamerjibe was listed as one of the top 50 companies that grew the quickest over the last year.

December 8, 2021

Lou Sandoval of SupplyHive Interviewed by Shalom Klein on Get Down To Business

Lou Sandoval joined Shalom Klein on his weekly radio show, Get Down To Business, to discuss SupplyHive.

October 16, 2021

Diverse Investors Join $2 Million SupplyHive™ Seed Round; Investors Sixty8 Capital, Angeles Investors and Service Provider Capital solidify diversity, inclusion missions

SupplyHive™, a Chicago-based innovative provider of Supplier Performance Management (SPM) technology, announced today that it fully subscribed $2 million in seed funding from three new investors with DNA in diversity and inclusion: Sixty8 Capital in Indianapolis, Indiana, Angeles Investors in Chicago, and Service Provider Capital LLC in Denver.

Thought Leadership

September 19, 2024

How AI Is Revolutionizing Marketing (Webinar)

On September 19, 2024, Propellant Ventures hosted an engaging virtual discussion to talk about the importance of AI in the marketing industry.

July 10, 2024

Riding the Wave of Water Innovation (Webinar)

On July 10, 2024, Propellant Ventures hosted an engaging virtual discussion to talk about the importance of innovation in the water industry.

May 15, 2024

The Paws-itive Rise in the Pet Tech Industry (Webinar)

On May 15, 2024, Propellant Ventures hosted an engaging virtual discussion to talk about the rise in the Pet Tech industry.

April 30, 2024

Early-Stage Venture Capital: The Next Great Alternative Investment Class

Early-stage funds often outperform later-stage funds due to a variety of factors, including a higher risk-return profile and the significant added value that investors (funds) can provide to startups.

April 24, 2024

Building Connections: Priorities for Effective Business Networking (Podcast)

On a Solvecast podcast, Jason discusses thought leadership, relationship building, paying-it-forward, and much more.

April 17, 2024

Solving the “Unsolvable” with Quantum Computing (Webinar)

On April 17, 2024, Propellant Ventures hosted an engaging virtual discussion to talk about quantum computing as an investment opportunity.

March 13, 2024

The Transformative Innovation of Tokenization (Webinar)

On March 13, 2024, Propellant Ventures hosted an engaging virtual discussion to talk about the substantial interest in tokenization as an investment opportunity.

February 29, 2024

The Importance of Building Business Relationships For Capital Raising (Interview)

On February 29 2024, our Managing Partner was interviewed by Gary Fowler GSD Venture Studios about "The Importance of Building Business Relationships For Capital Raising".

February 14, 2024

2024 Outlook: Opportunities for Investors & Startups (Webinar)

On February 14, 2024, Propellant Ventures hosted an engaging virtual discussion to talk about the 2024 outlook of the investment and startup landscape.

February 6, 2024

Venture Capital 101 (Webinar)

On February 6 2024, our Managing Partner recorded the recorded the discussion, "Venture Capital 101", for the Thought Leadership Series of Gildre.

Industry News

February 10, 2023

Investor appetite, microfunds help seed investing defy startup drubbing

While the end of the more than decade-long tech investing bull cycle was far from unanticipated, many venture investors were not prepared for the swift market downturn that began to take shape in early 2022.

January 24, 2023

IPO activity declines as big companies buy VC-backed startups

Prior to 2022, it seemed like every other startup on the market was going public. But during 2022, as the Fed aggressively raised interest rates to curb inflation, the trend reversed. Global IPO volumes fell 45% year-over-year, according to data from Ernst & Young.

January 12, 2023

Why local VCs think fundraising will pick back up in 2023

While 2021 was a year unlike any other for Chicago startups, 2022 proved to be a much different story, and Chicago startups are waiting to see if venture capital funding can get back into the swing of things to begin the new year.

January 9, 2023

Why is VC dry powder still piling up?

Venture capital firms' cash piles continued to grow, even as dry powder fell across other private investment strategies.Global venture firms were sitting on $585.5 billion of capital raised but not allocated as of the end of Q3 2022, according to PitchBook data. VC is the only private investment strategy in which dry powder is on pace to rise from 2021 levels.

December 21, 2022

Where did the unicorns go? $1B startups are getting harder to find

A unicorn, in startup vernacular, was designed as a term to describe a rare event for a young tech company: a $1 billion valuation. But in 2021, unicorns were more ubiquitous than ever.

December 12, 2022

Startup whiplash hits some sectors harder than others

There is no denying that 2022 has been a challenging year for startups. But it has not been equally difficult for every sector of the VC-backed ecosystem.

November 23, 2022

Slump puts more startups on path to acquisition by other startups

These are challenging times for venture capitalists hoping to eke out a palatable exit from a struggling portfolio company. Many venture-backed companies could soon be facing an undesirable yet straightforward decision: go out of business or be acquired at a fraction of their last valuation.

November 22, 2022

Cleo Capital on why now is a good time for early-stage VCs

Early-stage startups are finding it harder to raise capital as investors get more selective, but the ecosystem could still be in for a fresh influx of talent, says Cleo Capital managing director Sarah Kunst.

November 9, 2022

More cuts in late-stage valuations loom, as startups miss revenue targets

When Instacart lowered its internal valuation from $39 billion to $24 billion in March, many in the VC ecosystem wondered whether other startups would follow in the grocery delivery specialist's footsteps.

October 6, 2022

Global VC Pullback Is Dramatic In Q3 2022

Venture and growth investors in private companies scaled back their investment pace significantly as the slump in the public markets stretched into the third quarter.

Resources

Check out the blog for our latest musings