CHICAGO, IL – The Illinois
Innovation Accelerator (i2A) announced the first closing of its funding of
$6.4 million, allowing the funding to begin seeding start-up companies in the
region.
Launched as a for-profit investment fund supported by J.B.
Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the
Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and the Illinois Institute of Technology,
the group will fill the funding gap by funding “seed stage” technology
companies who cannot obtain funding from traditional venture capital sources.
“The i2A fund in and of itself is an entrepreneurial initiative.
It was created and funded by several of
Illinois’ most successful entrepreneurs to invest in the future of our local economies
and the next generation of pioneering entrepreneurs,” said David Weinstein, president
of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and administrator of the fund.