Top Tech Startups in Chicago, IL in 2026

Kasa Living, Inc. is a real estate technology company that is building a global accommodations brand. The company partners with owners of multifamily and boutique hospitality properties, transforming underutilized real estate into stylishly-furnished, professionally managed units that cater to business and leisure travelers seeking trustworthy and comfortable accommodations. Kasa was founded in 2016 by a team that includes technology and real estate professionals who previously drove growth at firms, including Airbnb, KKR, and Apollo. The company is headquartered in San Francisco.

CookUnity is the first-ever chef-to-consumer platform. Connecting a diverse group of talented chefs with busy food lovers, we’re elevating the at-home dining experience. On a quest to unlock the world’s best food creators and bring their meals to the masses, CookUnity is home to more than 35 of NYC and LA’s most talented chefs. Through a weekly subscription, consumers can select from a robust and ever-changing menu of handcrafted meals that cater to a wide variety of palates and dietary preferences. Delivering more than 3.5M meals per year and growing 5x YoY, CookUnity is also helping Chefs double their income and build their own teams under their personal brands. Believing that healthy food fuels stronger communities, CookUnity contributes to an ongoing partnership and donation with the Food Bank For New York City, the city’s major hunger-relief organization working to end food poverty across all five boroughs. A growing startup with kitchens in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, CookUnity reaches subscribers throughout the country, with ambitious expansion planned for 2021. Join Us!

Farmers Business Network connects farmers and their data through our independent agronomic network. We seek to improve the livelihood of farmers by making their data useful and accessible. Farmers Business Network (FBN) provide farmers with product performance, yield analysis, yield benchmarking and predictive analytics based on real world performance data from thousands of fields. FBN utilizes data science and machine learning to provide members with insights about each of their fields, powered by billions of data points from our network.

Our mission is to make technical advances towards robots and humans working together side by side, with an emphasis on human-centric design. Diligent Robotics is developing a suite of artificial intelligence that enables robots to collaborate with and adapt to humans in everyday environments. Our first product is a hospital service robot that can assist clinical staff with logistical tasks, allowing them to spend more of their time on direct patient care, improving patient satisfaction, quality of service, and safety.

Brilliant delivers memorable, impactful brand impressions through the best corporate gifting experiences in the world. With a focus on creativity and technology, Brilliant curates, produces, and helps companies distribute memorable gifts and branded merchandise. Whether it's welcome gifts for new hires, newsworthy press kits, merch sets to promote a product launch, or giveaways people love, our team of retail trend experts and designers create impactful products that bring brands to life. Services include concepting, sourcing, design, packaging, merch collections, company stores, touchpoint gifting, warehousing, fulfillment and distribution. Technology is part of our DNA. Our proprietary technology gives clients instantaneous access to important information and tools, including real-time inventory data, on-demand fulfillment services via web and API, and a convenient Slack integration.

We empower GTM leaders to build a consistent brand across every customer touchpoint. Our automated language generation and writing suggestions make it possible for teams to accelerate content, align brand, and empower more writers across all types of content and communications. Enterprise-class and simple to roll out, Writer is deployed widely at leading brands like Twitter, Intuit, UiPath, UnitedHealthcare, Accenture, and Spotify.

Accounting firms are in a pinch: 1. There are a record number of new businesses in the US 2. Tax code is ever growing, alongside audit and accounting standards 3. There is a record shortage of accountants, with over 17% leaving the industry recently 4. Existing software was built in the last century and is eating valuable time 5. Big accounting firms are building custom software and AI that is giving them a competitive edge Denari is on a mission to solve this and take advantage of this big opportunity. We are an early stage startup building the all-in-one platform for accounting firms leverage the power of AI. We are rolling out our software now to our sister company accounting firm (Lucida Tax + Accounting).

Our loading dock sensor platform verifies all incoming and outgoing freight, aggregating data that enables shippers and carriers to efficiently manage dock operations, switch out suppliers and understand material flow in real time.

Kunai is a safe workplace for brilliant minds in the fields of software engineering & architecture, business development, recruiting and strategy. We specialize as an agency for fintech organizations ranging from unicorn startups to Fortune 500 companies. Our team of 120+ individuals is dispersed all around the world, which organically builds diversity into our culture's DNA. Our mission is to take care of our people so that together we can all do the best work of our lives.