Industry News

Propellant Ventures aspires to change the future in a very powerful way. We boldly invest in outstanding companies and extraordinary teams to cultivate an extremely high-quality and diversified portfolio.
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The team at Propellant collaborates with our portfolio companies, angel groups, and other VC’s to dramatically improve startups success, growth, and valuation. In 5 years, Propellant Ventures strives to be one of Midwest region’s most active VCs and go-to funds for innovative startups. Propellant Ventures invests in a broad range of diverse tech enabled B2B industries such as healthtech, future of work, supply chain, fintech, IIoT, and edtech.

November 27, 2024

Customer support startups help lead an enterprise SaaS rebound

Funding for enterprise SaaS startups reached the highest level in over a year in Q2, with VC investment rising 70% QoQ to $21.9 billion. Much of the increase has been driven by AI, which is poised to disrupt the consumer relationship management segmen

July 23, 2024

AI-powered legal-tech startups cut the hype, gain more traction

AI is coming for the centuries-old legal profession, an area once written off by venture capitalists as uninvestable.

February 9, 2024

Why the next supply chain revolution will be a digital one

It was more than 100 years ago when Sears and Montgomery Ward sparked a trade revolution in Chicago, leveraging rail to innovate in trade.

January 29, 2024

The Fastest Growing Software Sectors in 2024

The fastest growing software category in the public markets is security.

November 3, 2023

Sizing up the boom in defense tech

Recent wars and rising tensions with China have highlighted the Pentagon's ongoing need to retool its arsenal with the latest technologies. VCs increasingly believe startups will play a meaningful role in these innovations.

August 24, 2023

The startup seed deal landscape is changing — and not just because there are fewer deals

In the last quarter of 2021, there were 880 seed rounds on Carta's platform. In the second quarter of 2023, that number was cut in half to just 440 seed deals. It's indicative of the broader pullback in startupland, but seed deals have also mirrored a larger venture-capital trend: a geographic shift in where startups are raising capital.

June 16, 2023

Smaller VCs are having an impact on diverse investors and founders

Smaller funds, those that have $50 million or less in assets under management, are helping to usher in a new wave of diversity within venture capital. And the reasons for this are simple.

June 2, 2023

Generative AI Is Moving Into Adtech. But Which Companies Will Stand The Test Of Time?

Generative AI is bulldozing through every industry possible, and the world of advertising and brand marketing isn’t immune. Startups are popping up that promise to create flawless ad copy and brand design fast, and at a fraction of the price and time it would take people to do that work.

May 22, 2023

In the world of startup valuations, there's generative AI—and everything else

If you talk to many early-stage investors, they'll say they're now living in two different worlds. Part of their day is filled with reviewing pitches of startups that show the exciting potential of generative AI, and the other part is spent helping their existing portfolio companies survive the slump.

May 8, 2023

Investors Rain Funding Down On Climate Prediction Startups

As climate issues flood nearly every sector, climate and weather analytics startups are offering companies and consumers predictions about everything from the chances for inclement weather for that upcoming vacation to the long-term flood or fire risks of building new properties.

April 14, 2023

Generative AI startups jockey for VC dollars

Roughly $1.7 billion was generated across 46 deals in Q1 2023, according to PitchBook data. An additional $10.68 billion worth of deals were announced in the quarter but have not completed.

February 10, 2023

Investor appetite, microfunds help seed investing defy startup drubbing

While the end of the more than decade-long tech investing bull cycle was far from unanticipated, many venture investors were not prepared for the swift market downturn that began to take shape in early 2022.