🔙 Highlights from Last Week

My partner Masha visited Chicago for a luncheon with our founders👇🏽

I got invited to UChicago as the inaugural speaker for their new student-led Venture Capital Club👇🏽

We collaborated Stephen Spiewak from Hallow to host an SEO focused meetup at the Drive office👇🏽

We welcomed student from the Kaplan Institute at Illinois Tech for a panel with two our of seed founders👇🏽

🥼 Why Illinois Has Two National Labs

​Illinois is one of the few states to have multiple US Department of Energy national labs: Argonne and Fermilab.

The only other states that have more than two are California, New Mexico, and Tennessee.

Our two labs are powerhouses of discovery with deep roots in American scientific progress. Both of our labs has a distinct origin story and mission, and they’ve helped shape major breakthroughs in energy, computing, and particle physics.

Let’s dive into the history behind Argonne and Fermi:

Argonne National Lab

Established in 1946, Argonne evolved from the University of Chicago's work on the Manhattan Project. It was designated as the first national laboratory in the United States and has since become a multidisciplinary research center.

Argonne focuses on areas like energy storage, renewable energy, environmental sustainability, supercomputing, and national security.

Argonne researchers have developed advanced battery technologies, including lithium-rich nickel-manganese-cobalt cathodes, which have significantly improved the performance and reliability of lithium-ion batteries.

FermiLab

Founded in 1967, Fermilab is dedicated to high-energy particle physics. This laboratory has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of fundamental particles and forces.

In 1995, scientists at Fermilab announced the discovery of the top quark, the sixth and final quark predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics.

Beyond its scientific endeavors, Fermilab has a herd of American bison, established in 1969 by the lab's first director, Robert Wilson, symbolizing the connection between the frontier of physics and the American frontier.

Little Known Facts

• Argonne’s impact goes beyond energy: their researchers helped invent technology used in Gorilla Glass.

• Fermilab had a rec basketball team for employees called “the Protons”

• Fermilab successfully demonstrated a 44-kilometer quantum entanglement network which is an early step toward secure quantum communication across the US.

• Argonne’s Aurora supercomputer is so powerful, it can perform more calculations in a single second than the entire human population could in 31 years.

Why This Matters

Our national labs do more than push the boundaries of science. They anchor Illinois as a global innovation hub:

• Attracting world-class researchers

• Driving billions in federal R&D funding

• Seeding startups and cutting-edge tech

In a world racing toward quantum computing, clean energy, and AI, Argonne and Fermilab keep Illinois at the center of the map.

📊 Chart of the Week

Breaking funding records: Chicago startups raised $900m in Q1’25. This is the highest amount since 2022 (and that’s just what’s been announced).

Despite higher funding totals, deal count is down from 2022. As the chart shows, $900M was invested across just 50 deals suggesting investors are placing more intentional, concentrated bets.

🚙 A Look Inside a Drive Capital Seed Company

One of our seed companies, Autoplay, is looking for more design partners!

Founded by a UChicago grad, Autoplay is building AI agents that help users navigate software in real time. To make that possible, Autoplay built an AI engine that analyzes session replays to reveal where users struggle and why. 👇🏽

With Autoplay, you can power:

• Context-aware co-pilots and chatbots

• Smarter product tours

• In-app agents that feel truly helpful

We’re looking for 3 more design partners to join us for April to help guide our roadmap. if interested feel free to book a time here.

📆 Events Around the City

Discrete Diffusion Modeling by Estimating the Ratios of the Data Distribution

• Wednesday

• RSVP

AgeTech Chicago Meetup

• Thursday

• RSVP

Chicago CoS Meetup

• Thursday

• RSVP

Intercollegiate Demo Day

• Student founders from across the Midwest are heading to Drive Capital this Friday for our first Intercollegiate Demo Day.

• RSVP

Archna & Jori's Product Leaders Breakfast

• Friday

• RSVP

Comic Strips & Science Bits

• Saturday

• RSVP

BuildIllinois Summit

• Saturday

• RSVP

EdTech TechWalk

• Sunday

• RSVP

🗞 Previous Newsletter Editions:

#102 - How Chicago Startup Compensation Compares to the Coasts

#101 - The Internet Started in Illinois

#100 - Connecting Chicago, One Email at a Time

#99 - Will Illinois Remain a Leader in Nuclear

👋 See you next week!

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