Radar · Chemicals and Materials in Chicago
Best Chemicals and Materials Companies in Chicago, United States
The 36 best Chemicals and Materials companies in Chicago, United States in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Century Aluminum.
By Riya SenguptaFinancials
36companies tracked
$250.7Mdisclosed funding
0unicorns
3have raised
FLIAR INTELLIGENCE · CHEMICALS AND MATERIALS × CHICAGO
Our analysis of 50 Chemicals and Materials companies
$3.9b in tracked funding; 74% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
50companies analysed
74%cloud-native stacks
2025funding peak (by rounds)
2016median founding year
41median Fliar Index™
51kcombined LinkedIn audience
61%of audience held by top 3
3companies hiring publicly (12 mo)
Ranked: Best Chemicals and Materials companies in Chicago
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Century Aluminum Aluminium production company | $250M | 65 mo ago | Public | — | 1995 | Apple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365Q4+13 | 14 patents Aluminum smelting electrodes for molten‑salt electrolysis of alumina | — |
| 2 | NUMiX Materials Manufacturer of sorbents to harvest dissolved critical metals | $685K | 66 mo ago | Funding Raised | Olivia Lugar Co-Founder | 2018 | — | — | — |
| 3 | Arkim Developer of nutritional ingredients and food preservatives for pharmaceutical industries | — | 70 mo ago | Seed | Muzaffer Yasar Co-Founder | 2011 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Lawson Products Provider of logistics and supply chain management solutions | — | 93 mo ago | Public | Cesar Lanuza CEO & President | 1952 | Cart FunctionalityShopifyMarker+25 | — | — |
| 5 | advance die casting Mumford Metal Casting offers casting procedures, materials, and knowledge to provide a unique solution for… | — | — | Acquired | — | 1920 | — | — | — |
| 6 | Advanced Material Processing Provider of integrated material processing and handling solutions | — | — | Funding Raised | Seth Vance CEO | 2019 | — | — | — |
| 7 | anderson shumaker company Anderson Shumaker is the industry leader in open die forging. | — | — | Acquired | — | 1998 | WordPressMySQLPHP+24 | — | — |
| 8 | B.L. Downey Manufacturer of protective & decorative coatings | — | — | Unfunded | — | 1956 | — | — | — |
Top 4 Chemicals and Materials companies in Chicago
#1
Public · Chicago, Illinois · founded 1995 · 2472 employees$250Mraised▾
Public · Chicago, Illinois · founded 1995 · 2472 employees
Aluminium production company
LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 15k LinkedIn followers — 29.8% of this cohort's audience
Activity: 1 expansions announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
- Apr 2021Post IPO$75M
- May 2018Conventional Debt$175M
Tech stack
Apple Icloud MailCloudflareFancyboxGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Font ApiGoogle Tag Manager
#2
Funding Raised · Chicago, Illinois · founded 2018 · 3 employees$685.1Kraised▾
Funding Raised · Chicago, Illinois · founded 2018 · 3 employees
Operator of an ion exchange materials company intended to specialize in the removal of heavy metals from complex liquid streams. The company's offerings include patented sorbents that enhance water treatment and provide value by minimizing treatment additives, simplifying operations, and reducing hazardous waste disposal costs, enabling clients to meet process and regulatory limits independent of initial water chemistry.
Funding rounds
- Feb 2021Grant (prize money)$173.1K
- Dec 2020Grant (prize money)$256K
- Nov 2020Grant (prize money)$256K
Founders & team
Investors
National Science Foundation, OSTI
Tech stack
HstsHttp/3
#3
Seed · Chicago, Illinois · founded 2011—raised▾
Seed · Chicago, Illinois · founded 2011
Developer of nutritional ingredients and food preservatives for pharmaceutical industries. The company produces natural supplements and food preservatives from natural sources of calcium, which can be used in food, vegetables, fruits, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and many CPG products.
Funding rounds
- Oct 2020Seed—
Founders & team
Investors
Yıldız Holding, Sente
#4
Public · Chicago, Illinois · founded 1952—raised▾
Public · Chicago, Illinois · founded 1952
Provider of logistics and supply chain management solutions
Founders & team
Investors
LKCM Headwater Investments, United States Department of Agriculture
Funding & investor landscape
$250.7Mtotal disclosed funding
2companies funded
5disclosed rounds
0rounds last 90 days
Most active investors
Notable founders
Olivia Lugar
Co-Founder · NUMiX Materials
Laurelle Banta
Co-Founder · NUMiX Materials
Muzaffer Yasar
Co-Founder · Arkim
Elif Gungor Reis
Co-Founder & CEO · Arkim
Cesar Lanuza
CEO & President · Lawson Products
Mike Decata
Retired CEO Lawson Products · Lawson Products
Prism market signals · United States · country-scoped Prism corpus, 774,205 docs
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Chemicals and Materials coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
RESEARCH FROM Chicago · institutions
What Chicago researches in advanced materials
15 papersstance +0.7053% breakthrough7% concern
local research themes
Polymer composites and self-healingAdvanced Materials and MechanicsMicro and Nano RoboticsAdditive Manufacturing and 3D Printing TechnologiesSlime Mold and Myxomycetes ResearchConducting polymers and applications
top institutions
- University of Chicago9
- University of Illinois Chicago7
Common questions
How many Chemicals and Materials companies are there in Chicago, United States?
Radar tracks 36 indexable Chemicals and Materials companies headquartered in Chicago, United States that meet our profile-completeness bar.
What is the total funding raised by Chemicals and Materials companies in Chicago, United States?
The Chemicals and Materials companies in Chicago, United States on this list have raised a combined $250.7M in disclosed equity funding across 2 funded companies.
Which is the highest-funded Chemicals and Materials company in Chicago, United States?
Century Aluminum is the highest-funded Chemicals and Materials company in Chicago, United States, with $250M in disclosed equity funding.
How many Chemicals and Materials companies in Chicago, United States are funded?
2 of the 36 Chemicals and Materials companies in Chicago, United States on this list have disclosed at least one equity funding round.
How many Chemicals and Materials unicorns are there in Chicago, United States?
None of the Chemicals and Materials companies in Chicago, United States on this list currently has a disclosed valuation of $1B or more.
Who are the top investors in Chicago, United States Chemicals and Materials companies?
The most active investors in Chicago, United States Chemicals and Materials companies on this list include LKCM Headwater Investments, May River Capital, National Science Foundation, OSTI, OpenGate Capital.
Riya SenguptaFinancials
Riya reads income statements for fun. She covers the real money in a sector — revenue, growth, who actually earns — and never met a vague claim she didn't want a number for.