Jun 13, 2022

Catch up on the latest Chicago tech news. | Photo: Five to Nine / Twitter The Chicago tech scene made headlines with funding rounds, growth numbers and new accelerator cohorts. From Rheaply’s $20 million venture raise to Quicklly’s recent partnership with Instacart, catch up on the latest Chicago tech news with the Built In Chicago Weekly Refresh. Rheaply secured $20M to help companies recycle . Chicago-based Rheaply developed a platform where companies can list, sell or rent their unwanted assets, such as office furniture or computers. The platform helps companies adopt a circular economy model. With the new funding, Rheaply will develop new eco-solutions for companies, including consulting services. The platform has been used by Google and the U.S. Air Force. [Built In Chicago] Techstars Chicago announced its next accelerator cohort . The latest cohort of startups that will participate in the Techstars Chicago accelerator is comprised of mostly Chicago startups. Each will receive $120,000 in funding and three months of mentorship. The startups include, BāKIT Box, bekome, Bloomfilter, Brocali, Flare FS, Haylon Technologies, Meal Village, Near Technology, Remote Gravity, Transfer Though and Zest. [Built In Chicago] Chicago TECH QUOTE OF THE WEEK “We created Quicklly to simplify the lives of the nearly 5.4 mil­lion South Asians living in the U.S. by seamlessly connecting them to Indian and South Asian markets, restaurants and caterers. We created Quicklly to give these businesses the technological resources to compete against the larger players by building their digital storefronts, expanding their consumer base and scaling their digital capabilities with a significantly lower fee structure.” — Keval Rej, co-founder of Quicklly Quicklly spotlighted in Future 5 series . Quicklly is a South Asian cuisine meal kit and food e-commerce platform that sells meal kits and also provides small businesses a platform to sell their food. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the company witnessed 500 percent growth and helped businesses selling South Asian foods. Quicklly recently partnered with Instacart as it hopes to introduce more people to South Asian cuisine. [Built In Chicago] DEI startup Five to Nine raised $4.25M . Five to Nine is a software startup that lets companies plan events for their employee resource groups. Their software can be integrated with Slack and provides data on attendance and effectiveness. With the new funding, Five to Nine will expand its engineering team and create new products. [TechCrunch]   Chicago startup guides