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Apr. 19, 2025
Before We Begin Announcements. Jim: Welcome back to The Beat. ICYMI--we're launching our latest Inno site next month: Houston Inno. To sign up for the Houston Inno Beat and to stay plugged into all things happening in the city's startup and tech scene, head here.
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Let's kick it... The Big One A breakdown of the day's biggest Inno story. Katherine: Chicago's buzziest startup is officially a unicorn. Jim has more on a milestone fundraise for Cameo.
Jim: Celebrity shoutout app Cameo announced Tuesday that it has raised $100M in new funding at a valuation of more than $1B.
The Series C round was led by e.ventures and included backing from several other well-known investors, such as GV (the VC firm formerly known as Google Ventures), Amazon’s Alexa Fund, UTA Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Valor Equity Partners, Lightspeed and Kleiner Perkins.
Some of Cameo's talent also invested in the round, including Tony Hawk. Chicago's Origin Ventures also participated.
The milestone fundraise and valuation comes on the heels of a breakout year for Cameo. The Chicago startup was already growing quickly before the coronavirus pandemic, but saw its growth skyrocket in 2020 as people had fewer entertainment options, and celebrities looked for new ways to connect with their fans.
"We want to build one of the most important, beloved consumer companies of the generation," Cameo CEO and co-founder Steven Galanis told me. "We want to build something that can be as enduring as what Walt Disney did for the last century. We want to build that for this century."
Cameo's goal is to eventually go public, Galanis said.
The startup, which offers fans personalized video shoutouts from celebrities, sold $100M worth of Cameos last year. The company keeps 25% of each Cameo sold, netting around $25M in revenue. More than 10,000 new celebrities joined Cameo last year, and the startup said that by the end of 2020 more than 150 celebrities were earning at least $100,000 on the platform. The top-earning celebrity last year was Brian Baumgartner, the actor who played Kevin on The Office. Baumgartner did more than $1M in bookings last year, Galanis said.
Cameo's unicorn status gives Chicago a rare consumer-focused startup with a $1B valuation. It's a milestone Galanis, who started Cameo out of Chicago tech hub 1871, said is validating for Chicago's growing tech scene.
"I'm extremely proud of that," he said. "I think Chicago deserved it. I think 1871 deserved this."
Read more: Cameo now valued at more than $1B after raising new funding Making Moves Quick hits on the local businesses, people and organizations making moves. Jim: The championship matchup in our Tech Madness challenge is officially set: Choobs will face off against M1 Finance for the title of Chicago Inno's 2021 Tech Madness Champion. In a true David vs. Goliath matchup, 16 seed Choobs, a marketplace for socially conscious brands, will face 4 seed M1, an investing app that's raised more than $170M to date. Vote in the championship round here. Katherine: A Chicagoland medical device company raised a new round of funding as it works to help physicians better visualize their patients during surgery. Augmedics announced Tuesday that it raised $36M in a Series C round led by H.I.G. Capital, Revival Healthcare Capital and Almeda Ventures. Augmedics’ xvision Spine system is a device surgeons wear on their heads during spinal operations that allows them to see their patient better. Using augmented reality, the device lets doctors visualize the 3D spinal anatomy of a patient during surgery, giving them something similar to “x-ray vision,” Augmedics said. More here. Jim: Pyxis, a startup developing drugs to help patients with difficult-to-treat cancers, raised $152M in new funding Tuesday. the startup is based in Boston, but it was co-founded by Chicago entrepreneur John Flavin and University of Chicago professor Thomas Gajewski. The startup's new COO, Ritu Shah, is also based in Chicago. More here. 
Featured Jobs Below are featured jobs from our Careers Directory. To feature a job in this newsletter, read more.
In the Know The local startup and innovation stories you need to read today. Elsewhere in Inno Stories from around the Inno network we think you'll dig.
In the Community The events and happenings to know in the ecosystem. For more upcoming events, be sure to browse the Inno events directory. MARCH April Rants & Ramblings The other stuff. Jim: It's fitting that Cameo became a unicorn during our Tech Madness challenge. The first time I met Steven and crew was at our Tech Madness bracket reveal event in early 2018. We left a couple 16 seeds open for startups to pitch us in person, with the best pitches making it on to that year's bracket (Cameo made it). Fast forward three years, and Cameo's one of the hottest consumer startups on the planet. 🤯
Side note: I've missed in-person networking events a lot more than I thought I would. Can't wait until we can all safely hang again.
Katherine: I feel like our first event post-covid should just be the ultimate Chicago startup party. No panels. No long programming. Just catching up, drinking and … dancing? It’ll be a night to celebrate! 
Inno Info The more you know. Interested in sponsoring this email? Please contact sales@americaninno.com for more information and sponsorship opportunities. Meet the Authors: Jim Dallke, Senior Editor, jdallke@americaninno.com Katherine Davis, Associate Editor, kdavis@americaninno.com
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