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The Beat: Why Chicago's women-led startups see less investment
The Beat: Why Chicago's women-led startups see less investment

Business Journals

time5 days ago

  • Business
  • Business Journals

The Beat: Why Chicago's women-led startups see less investment

Welcome to Chicago Inno's The Beat, a twice-weekly look at the people, companies and ideas that are shaping Chicago's innovation economy. The Big One PitchBook's VC female founders dashboard released earlier this month shows venture-capital deal flow to Chicago companies founded or co-founded by women has dropped precipitously this year. Female founders in Chicago have raised $220M across 28 deals in 2025 thus far. That's significantly down from the $926M raised across 86 deals in 2024. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events Despite that, local investors believe the Chicago startup community has made strides when it comes to keeping women founders in the Windy City, though they say more work still needs to be done. This year's decline in Chicago is a stark contrast to the rest of the nation, where startups with at least one female founder have raised $78.8B over 1,428 deals, blowing past 2021's record of $68.7B. The first two quarters of 2025 were the best on record for startups with at least one female founder, totaling $51.2B and $27.6B, respectively, according to PitchBook data. That growth was powered by a few massive deals, including OpenAI's record-seeing $40B round in March. READ MORE: Venture funding for female founders in Chicago plummets despite national surge More Chicago Inno news to know A local cross-sector coalition aiming to bring quantum technology to market could be getting a big boost from a federal agency. Chicago startup Amphix Bio announced it received an orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its treatment of acute spinal cord injury. Chicago named among top US cities for AI readiness Chicago has been named one of the best-prepared cities when it comes to adopting artificial intelligence technologies. That's according to The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit think tank, which published a report Wednesday that calls Chicago one of 28 AI "Star Hubs" across the country. While not one of the "Superstar" markets for artificial intelligence — reserved for California's San Francisco and San Jose — Chicago is still well positioned to create, apply and harness the power of AI. READ MORE: Chicago named among top US cities for AI readiness, balancing talent and innovation Sign up for Inno's free twice-weekly newsletter to receive the latest innovation news impacting Chicago.

Opening Jacob's Pillow's season, Dorrance Dance stays true to the beat
Opening Jacob's Pillow's season, Dorrance Dance stays true to the beat

Boston Globe

time26-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Boston Globe

Opening Jacob's Pillow's season, Dorrance Dance stays true to the beat

Advertisement The stern yet buoyant Tomoe 'Beasty' Carr rotates her forearms with speedy precision; Fritzlyn Hector circles her arms, offers the audience her palms; Zakhele 'Bboy Swazi' Grabowski's handstand is more stable than funding for the arts. With fast feet, bent knees, and heavy arms, each dancer in the ensemble moves through and around the rhythm of composer Donovan Dorrance's score and John Angeles's live percussion, making visible the syncopated, polyrhythmic interplay between motion and sound. (Angeles and Michelle Dorance share roots in the percussion sensation 'Stomp.') "The Center Will Not Hold" at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival 2025. Christopher Duggan Photography A downcast square of light illuminates Dorrance and Asherie centerstage. They grasp hands but look away; they adjust their black cropped blazers rocking back on one leg; they look toward each other, but find no recognition in the other's eyes. Advertisement Behind them, three more pairs of dancers are revealed in similar dress. The swing of a knee, touch of a foot, and pulsing lift of the torso echoes quickly from one partner to the next with syncopated precision. Some of the best moments are when Angeles performs from inside and among the dancers onstage; he wears a snare drum holstered around his neck, which he beats insistently, twirling his drumsticks for a flourish. His punctilious and insistent rhythms are a worthy match for Dorrance's razor-precise taps that perch on the edge of control. Dorrance Dance has been blending tap with contemporary dance forms for years, but the meat has been percussive movement. This evening's vocabulary is just as much hip-hop as tap. If tap and hip-hop have something in common, it is a shared worship at the altar of 'The Beat.' Dorrance has been hinting at the intertwined histories of tap and hip-hop for years, but this piece, with one dance happening next to the other, reveals through proximity rather than fusion just how tangled the two are. 'The Center Will Not Hold' pairs tap with regional hip-hop styles from the East, West, and Midwest. With so many distinct hip-hop forms on one stage, the dancers are brought into conversation not by the saccharine promise of connection across difference (the dancers often look serious, keeping to themselves), but simply by performing near to each other. The roll of a torso echoes in the fluid locking of an arm; the dexterity of Memphis jookin is made audible by a tap shoe. Historically, tap and hip-hop are both Black American dance forms that originated as street dances — refined and expanded through improvisation and exchange outside the colonialist influence of the 'institution.' Advertisement Jacob's Pillow is nothing if not an institution, and for the festival to open its season with a tribute to the intertwining vernaculars of Black American dance traditions feels important, even if it arrived under the name of a white woman. But Dorrance has long understood this — hence the way she credits the work. The center will not hold, nor should it. THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD At Jacob's Pillow's Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket, runs through June 29. Tickets start at $65. 413-243-0745; . Sarah Knight can be reached at sarahknightprojects@

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