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Venture Capital and Emerging Companies

Better Growth Fueled by speed and experience

Whether you’re a startup founder or an investor—you’re an entrepreneur. Your day is chaotic, it moves at an intense pace and you’re constantly juggling existing obligations and new challenges while seizing opportunities to grow and maximize your company’s value.

You require counsel with the same entrepreneurial DNA: to move quickly, anticipate roadblocks and answer the call at a moment’s notice.

We thrive where these needs intersect. View our representative transactions here. 

Connecting Innovation to Investment

Our attorneys are actively involved in the venture community, monitoring and acting on the business trends that will impact your business. Our relationships with venture capitalists and angel investors run deep. We understand their goals and that understanding gives us insight into the ingredients for commercial success. We work with entrepreneurial and high-growth companies across industries, including healthcare and life sciences, energy and cleantech, education technology, fintech, cybersecurity and telecom. We’ll be in the trenches with you – from formation to exit and every step along the way.

Areas of Focus

  • Venture capital financing
  • Growth financing
  • Mergers & acquisitions
  • Debt financing
  • Commercial negotiations and transactions
  • Incorporation and business entity formation
  • Corporate governance and shareholder engagement
  • Special counsel matters
  • Social entrepreneurship and impact investing
  • Intellectual property transactions, licensing and protection
  • Cybersecurity and data privacy counseling and implementation
  • Federal, state and local tax matters and planning
  • Equity incentive plans
  • Dispute resolution, litigation and arbitration
  • Estate planning and asset protection
  • Leasing and real estate strategy
  • Executive compensation and employment matters
  • Strategic partnerships
Client Success: Swag Golf Raises $10MM in Growth FinancingOctober 11, 2023

HMB would like to congratulate Swag Golf on raising $10 million in growth funding. This investment will bolster Swag Golf’s innovative product lines, increase its presence in the Asia-Pacific market and accelerate its production capabilities to meet growing demand.

Client Success: CodaPet Expands into Kansas City as Part of Broader National ExpansionApril 12, 2023

HMB would like to congratulate CodaPet on its expansion into Kansas City, MO, and its surrounding cities. The startup empowers a network of veterinarians who offer families the opportunity to say goodbye to their pets in the comfort of their own homes.

Client Success: LandscapeHub Closes $9MM in Series A FundingFebruary 11, 2022

HMB would like to congratulate LandscapeHub on the successful closing of their $9 million Series A round of funding.

Client Success: Aegon Asset Management and Avenue Capital Group Closes $50MM in Growth FinancingDecember 9, 2021

HMB congratulates clients Aegon Asset Management and Avenue Capital Group which recently announced the closing of a $50 Million growth financing round in Intellihot to advance innovative green technologies.

Client Success: Loft Growth Partners Leads Investment in Back to the RootsNovember 29, 2021

HMB would like to congratulate Loft Growth Partners on its partnership with Back to the Roots.

Client Success: HAAS Alert Raises $5M to Take Cellular V2X Network NationwideSeptember 7, 2021

HMB would like to congratulate HAAS Alert on the closing of their equity financing round. The $5M in investment capital will support the nationwide expansion of Safety Cloud, the leading automotive digital alerting system that’s standard on emergency and roadway fleet vehicles. HAAS Alert’s platform enables real-time safety alerts between vehicles and connected infrastructure (V2X) to reduce the risk of…

Client Success: HMB Congratulates Impact Investment Fund Beyond Capital Ventures on its Investment in Vieberg TechnologiesSeptember 1, 2021

Beyond Capital Ventures invests in next wave innovation addressing the growing needs of 1 billion+ consumers in India and East Africa. The firm first closed in Spring 2021 and will invest in conscious leaders building businesses to address growing needs in “need-to-have” sectors, primarily in healthcare, agriculture and financial inclusion. 

Client Success: Social Storytelling Platform PechaKucha Raises $2.7M in Seed FundingJune 29, 2021

HMB would like to congratulate PechaKucha, a social storytelling platform that has been used by millions of people across the globe, and CEO and Co-founder Sean Smyth and the rest of the PechaKucha team on a $2.7 million Seed funding round. PechaKucha, based in Chicago and Tokyo, is a fast-growing storytelling platform used by millions of people across the globe. Content creators, schools,…

Client Success: WorkChew Announces $2.5M Series Seed Funding RoundMarch 30, 2021

HMB would like to congratulate WorkChew and its co-founders, Maisha Burt and Allyson McDougal on a successful funding round. WorkChew, a startup that turns hotels and restaurants into on-demand flexible workspaces, raised $2.5 million. With WorkChew, company employees can access workspaces wherever they are: whether in an urban corridor or a suburb outside of a major city. Membership is often…

Client Success: AeroPay Raises $5M+ in Venture RoundMarch 10, 2021

HMB congratulates Aeropay, a Chicago-based digital payments platform powering bank transfer payments for businesses, and CEO and Founder Daniel Muller on announcing the closing of a $5+ million venture round. AeroPay is a next-generation payments company, reimagining the way money is moved in exchange for goods and services. Since its founding, AeroPay has operated with the goal of simplifying payments…

HMB Congratulates FingerprintJS on Closing Series A Funding RoundFebruary 15, 2021

HMB congratulates FingerprintJS and its founders, Dan Pinto and Valentin Vasilyev, on closing an $8M Series A financing round. The company, a new kind of toolkit offering a browser fingerprinting service, is based on an open-source project that already has 10 million downloads and 8,000 websites using the service. Fingerprint JS plans to use the capital to expand its fraud prevention…

HMB Congratulates Dina Care on Closing $7M Series AJanuary 12, 2021

HMB congratulates client Dina Care, an AI-powered care-at-home platform and network, for successfully closing a $7 million Series A funding round led by Philadelphia-based Osage Venture Partners. Existing investors, strategic partners and Wheaton, Ill.-based First Trust Capital Partners LLC, also participated in the round. Funding will be used to accelerate Dina Care’s development of its industry-leading care coordination platform and…

HMB Congratulates FingerprintJS on Closing Funding RoundOctober 15, 2020

HMB congratulates FingerprintJS and its founders, Dan Pinto and Valentin Vasilyev, on closing a $4M financing round. The company, a new kind of toolkit offering a browser fingerprinting service, is based on an open-source project that already has 5 million downloads and 8,000 websites using the service. “We have a unique opportunity to disrupt the fraud technology market by enabling our…

HMB Congratulates AM Money on Recent Financing RoundOctober 8, 2020

HMB congratulates AM Money, also known as Chicago Student Loans, and CEO & Founder Daniel Rogers, on closing a financing round. AM Money fights to give low-income students across the city, state and country every opportunity to graduate from college, find quality employment and build wealth. Google for Startups is one of AM Money's many supporters and has provided additional funding through…

HMB Congratulates AeroPay on Closing Seed RoundOctober 1, 2020

HMB congratulates AeroPay, a Chicago-based alternative payments platform, and CEO & Founder Daniel Muller, on closing a seed round to accelerate its growth led by Continental Investors. The AeroPay platform eliminates traditional payment processing burdens and enables seamless bank-to-bank digital payments between businesses and their customers. The platform is built to work in any environment, both in-person or online. With…

HMB Represents Hyde Park Angels in Lead Investment in Chicago-Based Smart Building StartupAugust 25, 2020

Cohesion, a Chicago-based startup which makes a SaaS platform for building managers, announced that it raised $6.5 million in a funding round led by HPA, with participation from Frasers Property Group, investment firm CMT and a host of individual angel investors. HMB represented Hyde Park Angels (HPA) in their lead investment and congratulates HPA on the closing. HPA's people-first approach…

HMB Congratulates Client Red Flag Mania on Partnership with WGU LabsAugust 21, 2020

HMB congratulates client, Red Flag Mania, a game-based investigative experience, and founders Roni Jackson and Kelly Richmond Pope, on their recent partnership with WGU Labs, Inc. ("WGU"). Under the agreement, WGU will make both a service and capital investment in Red Flag Mania, that's innovative e-learning solution combines film, theory and "whodunit" fun to empower learners to use data to…

HMB Represents Foxtrot in $17M Growth RoundFebruary 10, 2020

Foxtrot, a modern convenience store offering in-store and delivery options, announced that it raised $17 million in a funding round co-led by Imaginary Ventures and Wittington Ventures and joined by previous investors Fifth Wall, Lerer Hippeau, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, M3 Ventures, The University of Chicago, Collaborative VC and Wasson Enterprises as well as new investors Bluestein…

HMB Represents Listen Ventures in $2.8M Series Seed Funding Round of Washington State-Based Childhood Development CompanyJanuary 6, 2020

Slumberkins, makers of tools for early emotional learning, has secured $2.8 million in its Series Seed funding round led by Listen Ventures and SeaChange Fund. HMB represented Listen Ventures in their investment. Listen Ventures, a consumer-only venture capital firm focused on backing and building the brands of tomorrow, invests in ambitious entrepreneurs who challenge traditional thinking. This capital injection comes…

HMB Represents Hyde Park Angels in $4.5M Funding Round of Chicago-based Tech/Cannabis CompanyDecember 6, 2019

Leaf Trade, a technology company whose wholesale ordering platform connects licensed cannabis vendors and dispensaries, announced that it raised $4.5 million in a funding round led by HPA and Duke Software Investments. HMB represented Hyde Park Angels (HPA) in their investment. HPA's people-first approach provides unique value to entrepreneurs and investors. HPA will be actively involved in Leaf Trade at…

HMB Represents DataCubes in $15.2 Million Series B Funding RoundNovember 15, 2019

DataCubes is the first underwriting decisioning platform for commercial property and casualty insurance. Leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence software, DataCubes provides commercial carriers of all sizes the ability to make real-time underwriting decisions. The intelligence gathered provides efficient, accurate, and productive steps forward for DataCubes' clients. The company was founded in 2016 by Kuldeep Malik and Harish Neelamana and…

HMB represents Ascent in $19.3 Million Series B Funding RoundNovember 6, 2019

HMB represented Ascent in a $19.3 Million Series B Funding Round, led by Drive Capital. Ascent is an AI-driven solution company. Their goal is to help customers automate regulatory compliance by delivering customers regulatory knowledge in the form of a dynamic obligations register. This approach reduces the mundane and error-prone manual efforts of regulatory research and analysis. With Series B…

HMB Represents Launchways in Partnership DealSeptember 19, 2019

HMB represented Launchways in a new partnership deal with Patriot Growth Insurance Services, LLC. Launchways, founded in 2009, provides business leaders with human resources consulting, employee benefits and commercial insurance solutions. Launchways has guided over 400 customers to overcome insurance and human resources challenges throughout the Midwest. The company recently moved its headquarters to Chicago to accommodate its growing employee…

Commercial Lending and Equity Deal Terms for Middle Market Businesses, Spring 2014March 5, 2014

Spring 2014 The winter months were unusually cool in late 2013 and early 2014, and most middle market borrowers and lenders will likely concede that lending activity during those months was equally cool.  The optimism for robust deal flow in 2013 never materialized into actual results, even though most middle market lenders remained quite optimistic until the bitter end.  Spring,…

Commercial Lending and Equity Deal Terms for Middle Market Businesses, Fall 2013October 14, 2013

FALL 2013 Although the first half of 2013 was marred by stagnant activity within the middle market lending environment, senior lenders across the middle market seem quite optimistic about finishing the year with a bang.  While it is difficult for senior lenders to pinpoint the exact cause for their optimism, the recurring talking point has been that these senior lenders…

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