Added 8 prominent Chicago-based venture capital firms from Built In Chicago research: Chicago Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Clean Energy Trust, Sterling Partners, and Nameless Ventures
Added IrishAngels and Cornerstone Angels to expand Chicago angel investor network coverage
Added Portal Innovations, a leading life sciences venture capital firm and incubator providing lab space and seed capital to biotech startups
Expanded Illinois coverage to include specialized funds in fintech (West Loop Ventures, OCA Ventures), urban innovation (Ekistic Ventures), energy/climate tech (Energize Ventures, Energy Foundry, Clean Energy Trust), and life sciences (Wildcat Venture Management)
Upgraded Next.js from 16.0.0 to 16.0.7 for latest performance improvements and bug fixes
Added Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund, a $3M pre-seed fund managed by InvestUP focused on outdoor recreation technology, mobility, sustainability, and tourism innovations across Upper Peninsula and rural Michigan
Added expanded profile for Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund III with details on their PO financing program and $700M+ in leveraged follow-on investment
Added Gilbert Family Foundation, supporting Detroit economic mobility, housing stability, arts & culture, and community development initiatives
Added Pointe Angels, a Grosse Pointe-based angel investor club founded in 2019 that provides hands-on capital and expertise to early-stage ventures, primarily in Michigan
Added Alloy Partners (formerly High Alpha Innovation), an Indianapolis-based venture studio that co-creates advantaged startups with corporate partners across supply chain, manufacturing, healthcare, AgTech, and sustainability sectors. Portfolio includes 30+ companies and six venture studios.
Added OneHealth Studio, powered by Alloy Partners and founded with Elanco, focusing on startups at the convergence of plant, animal, and human health. Plans to launch 8-12 startups in the One Health ecosystem.
Added Nationwide Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Nationwide Insurance based in Columbus, Ohio. They invest in insurtech, fintech, mobility, cybersecurity, proptech, and enterprise infrastructure startups with 57+ portfolio companies.
Added Paragraph Venture Studio, a Bloomington-based venture studio that builds and backs scalable B2B SaaS companies from pre-idea stage through growth
Added Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) for all four Midwest states: Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan
SBDCs provide no-cost business advising, training, and resources to help businesses at every stage from startup through growth and transition
Added 6 major Midwest venture capital firms: Lightbank, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Baird Capital, Allos Ventures, Sandalphon Capital, and Dundee Venture Capital
Expanded coverage to include prominent VCs active across Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Omaha
Added major accelerators with Midwest presence: Plug and Play Detroit, Plug and Play Cleveland, and Founder Institute Chicago
Implemented email functionality for contact form with success/error messaging
Added loading indicators and response metadata (time and tokens) to AI chat
Launched MidFund platform with comprehensive Midwest funding resources directory
AI-powered chat assistant to help users discover and learn about funding resources
Advanced filtering by Type, Location, Investment Stage, and Core Focus
Export functionality to CSV for easy data management
Initial database of 65+ funding resources including angels, angel groups, VCs, accelerators, incubators, venture studios, and government programs
Added 23 university-affiliated funding sources from major Midwest universities (Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, UChicago, Ohio State, Illinois, Purdue, IU)
Included major national programs with Midwest presence: Techstars, Y Combinator, M25, gener8tor