The Midwest Founder Institute, the local chapter of the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator, is proud to announce the newest Alumni from the Chicago Winter 2025 program.
After meticulous selection process and intense four months of aggressive business-building sprints, constant evaluation, and feedback from investors and mentors, just 8 companies were able to make it through.
Each of these Founders have demonstrated a high level of perseverance and creativity, and their businesses have been thoroughly vetted and supported by a panel of Midwest's top startup experts and investors.
And now, without further ado, we present the Alumni of the Midwest program:
- B&B Horizon - Providing AI-powered market intelligence to midsize real estate investment firms, helping them identify high-growth markets and streamline pre-deal sourcing to improve deal flow and returns.
- iGrow - A gamified micro-learning platform that helps students and young professionals build essential life skills, through interactive, real-world simulations that traditional education fails to provide.
- MomSub - A marketplace app that finds and manages the ideal nanny based on location, schedule, and budget, serving working parents who need a hard-to-find weekly caregiver willing to commit to part-time long-term child care at an affordable rate.
- KnowCents - Helping savers earn more by tracking cash, optimizing interest, and eliminating costly CD auto-renewals—because earning 0.01% makes no sense.
- The Tapestree Company Inc - Reimagining the memory quilt as a community-powered gifting experience—where personalized fabric patches are easily created, shared, and assembled into a lasting tapestry that honors the recipient’s life, relationships, and accomplishments.
- Astarta Disruptive Academy LLC - An AI-powered platform offering holistic maternity care—combining expert-led education, personalized support, and on-demand consultations to help women navigate pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early motherhood with confidence and ease.
- TripCircle Inc. - Helping Gen Z and Millennial travelers plan and commit to group trips by combining collaborative saving, shared decision making, and booking tools into one stress free experience that eliminates scattered apps and coordination headaches.
- HapyTap - A feel-good gifting platform that sparks emotional connection by helping people send gifts even during just-because moments with a simple tap, turning everyday kindness into a joyful scalable habit.
The Chicago Winter 2025 program would not have been possible without help, because it truly takes a city to raise a startup.
Join us at Midwest Founder Institute Graduation Event - link to graduation event.
Midwest Local Directors
We would first like to thank the Local Directors of the Midwest Founder Institute: Jason Jacobsohn (Managing Partner, Propellant Ventures). Our Local Leaders play an incredibly important role in building the local Founder Institute program, and creating an environment and network in Midwest that is conducive to building to great companies.
In addition, the Chicago Winter 2025 program was supported by some of Midwest's top technology organizations, including:
Some of Midwest’s top startup mentors helped our founders in the program, including:
In the Founder Institute's pre-seed accelerator program, early-stage entrepreneurs and teams build their business alongside a critical support network of local startup experts that share equity in their success, and through a structured and challenging business-building process that has helped alumni raise over $1.85BN.
After Graduation, the new Midwest Founder Institute Portfolio Companies now have a fast-growing company that has been fully validated by experienced startup founders, with access to the Founder Institute's global network and post-graduate support programs to continue building their business.
Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute to raise funding, building a co-founding team, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 200+ cities and 100+ countries, the Founder Institute’s mission is to Globalize Silicon Valley and empower talented and motivated entrepreneurs to build companies that will create one million new jobs.
The next Midwest Founder Institute program is being planned now. If you are interested in being notified when applications open, visit FI.co/apply/midwest.
Alumni of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.85BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/graduates.
