Industry landscapes
The companies, capital and talent shaping media & entertainment in Chicago. Find the leaders. Understand the segments. See where the activity is.
An industry ecosystem,
measured in context.
24 featured companies from the funding, hiring, revenue and team-size leaderboards.
Locked revenue figures are available in Radar; the eight company financial previews stay the same throughout this page. A dash means the figure is outside these featured lists. Revenue years vary by company; the figures are not a like-for-like revenue comparison. Compare annual accounts ↗
No company example met every recorded classification, independence and public-profile gate in this snapshot. The live directory may have newer qualifying companies.
Explore classified startups in Radar ↗A few useful ratios bring the size of this ecosystem into perspective.
34 of 587 tracked companies have open roles.
53 of 587 tracked companies have a recorded round.
Share of disclosed capital received by the three largest recorded recipients.
Midpoint of 78 rounds with a disclosed amount.
Scale is concentrated. Opportunity is broader. The three largest funding recipients hold 44.6% of disclosed capital, while 91.0% of tracked companies have no recorded funding round.
Explore the segments →Recorded company formation and disclosed funding across the complete annual series shown.
Sum of recorded funding rounds · USD
| Year | Funding (USD) | Founded | Raising |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $5.04M | 24 | 7 |
| 2017 | $27.76M | 30 | 5 |
| 2018 | $89.16M | 25 | 8 |
| 2019 | $29.6M | 20 | 6 |
| 2020 | $71.45M | 21 | 7 |
| 2021 | $26.11M | 16 | 7 |
| 2022 | $68.95M | 16 | 8 |
| 2023 | $39.35M | 15 | 6 |
| 2024 | $8.3M | 7 | 7 |
| 2025 | $23.21M | 6 | 6 |
Share of all disclosed company funding.
94 recorded rounds since 2016
Recorded participation in media & entertainment company rounds since 2016.
Backed by Bedrock and Evolution Media and others.
Backed by Founders Fund and Bedrock and others.
Backed by Volition Capital.
Backed by Summit Partners.
Backed by Tribune Media.
Backed by Founders Fund.
Backed by TCV.
Participating investors were not recorded in this snapshot.
Backed by Evolution Media and BDMI and others.
Backed by VantagePoint Capital Partners.
Annual accounts for reporting companies linked to this landscape, on like-for-like currency and reporting bases.
Display conversions use the dated reference rates above. Where a verified rate is unavailable, figures retain their source currency. Each reporting cohort keeps its currency and accounting basis separate.
FY2025 · company accounts; aggregate reporting threshold not met · 1 reporting entities from 2 eligible matches.
Sum of reporting-entity revenue; not Chicago market sales.
Combined result for the same cohort.
Combined net income ÷ combined revenue.
The middle covered reporting entity.
None of 1 covered entities.
Share of covered revenue from the five largest entities.
Reported cohort totals by year; coverage is stated for every period.
Bar height shows revenue. Changes in coverage can affect totals.
FY2025 · 1 reporting entities
Up to eight fixed company previews show financial amounts. Search and sort the wider company list, then continue in Radar.
| Company / reporting entity | Revenue | Net profit / loss | Net margin | Revenue growth | Total assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rush Street Interactive ↗1793659 | $1,134.4m | $33.3m | +2.9% | — | — |
Explore full company accounts and filings.
Choose “View accounts” to inspect an available company preview.
Each pair uses the same year, currency and reporting basis. Cohort overlap is disclosed.
| Industry | Covered / eligible | Revenue total | Median revenue | Net profit / loss | Aggregate margin | Profitable share | Overlap |
|---|
Available-account cohorts are not estimates of whole industries. Overlapping entities can occur in more than one cohort; do not add cohort totals.
Filed annual accounts for exact designated national identifiers. Every aggregate and peer pair uses one fiscal year, source currency and reporting basis; periods, coverage and overlap are explicit; 2026 partials are excluded.
The same up to eight reporting entities remain open across years, filters and sorts. Other company figures are available in Radar.
Source currencies and accounting bases stay separate. Missing accounts are excluded rather than treated as zero. Exact reporting periods appear on company previews. Annual totals can change with coverage and do not measure growth of a fixed company cohort.
How the Chicago companies on this page show up online: the sites people visit, the apps they install, and how often those apps ship.
32 of the 587 companies on this page carry a measured traffic record (5.5%); these are the largest of those, by monthly visits. The median among them is 748,388 visits.
| Company | Monthly visits | Authority | Mobile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legacy.comlegacy.com | 28,895,518 | 77 | 72% |
| Reverbreverb.com | 11,788,504 | 60 | 41.7% |
| Vivid Seatsvividseats.com | 10,954,225 | 64 | 64.4% |
| Moviefonemoviefone.com | 10,866,098 | 63 | 78.3% |
| Ars Technicaarstechnica.com | 9,045,202 | 68 | 62.5% |
| Brain.fmbrain.fm | 4,490,403 | 46 | 73.5% |
| JAMA Networkjamanetwork.com | 3,842,827 | 70 | 38.7% |
| The Oniontheonion.com | 3,332,739 | 54 | 73.3% |
| chicago readerchicagoreader.com | 2,758,959 | 53 | 86% |
| currentcurrent.us | 2,155,719 | 27 | 99.4% |
Visits and authority are third-party web estimates, not company-reported figures.
46 of these companies (7.8%) publish at least one Android app — 61 apps in all, carrying 83.3M installs between them.
| App | Installs | Rating | Store category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make Money: Play to Earn CashMode Mobile | 57.7M | 4.5 | Personalization |
| Heart StarCarbonmade | 5.9M | 4.6 | Puzzle |
| Vivid Seats | Event TicketsVivid Seats | 5.7M | 4.7 | Events |
| Reverb: Buy & Sell Music GearReverb | 2.9M | 4.7 | Shopping |
| Total Party KillCarbonmade | 1.6M | 4.4 | Puzzle |
| AccuRadioAccuRadio | 1.5M | 4.5 | Music & Audio |
| Illinois Lottery Official AppIllinois Lottery | 1.3M | 4.7 | Entertainment |
| Music for Focus by Brain.fmBrain.fm | 1.2M | 4.2 | Health & Fitness |
| Super Dangerous DungeonsCarbonmade | 953.3K | 4.5 | Action |
| Poor Bunny!Carbonmade | 558.8K | 4.6 | Arcade |
Installs are lifetime totals to date at the June 2026 store reading — a measure of reach, not of people using an app today.
The busiest app inside each of this page’s own segments, with the quarterly release trend behind it (2023Q1–2026Q2).
| Segment | Apps | Installs | Leading app | Release trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music Tech | 7 | 63.9M | Make Money: Play to Earn Cash 57.7M | |
| Tech For Film & Tv | 11 | 10.4M | Heart Star 5.9M | |
| Online Event Ticketing | 6 | 5.7M | Vivid Seats | Event Tickets 5.7M | |
| Radio Tech | 9 | 1.9M | AccuRadio 1.5M | |
| Gambling Tech | 8 | 1.5M | Illinois Lottery Official App 1.3M | |
| Social Platforms | 4 | 489.7K | Stridekick Activity Challenges 462.6K | |
| Book Tech | 3 | 480.6K | Key Collector Comics 328.6K | |
| Sports Tech | 4 | 70K | Stadium 29.1K |
A company can carry several segment tags, so these rows overlap and should not be added together. Trend lines are zero-based and share one quarter grid, so a flat line is a quiet segment, not a missing one.
New apps published, beside apps whose most recent update landed in that quarter — the second bar is how much of the shelf is still being maintained.
Darker bars are new releases, lighter bars apps updated. 60 of 61 apps carry a release date. The series ends at 2026Q1, the last quarter that closed before the June 2026 reading.
Explore the segments behind the headline numbers.
Rank segments by scale, hiring or disclosed funding.
Companies can sit in several segments. Counts and funding overlap.
The largest measured segment in this report snapshot.
19 companies hiring · $517.47M disclosed funding
Explore in RadarCommon revenue models; a company can use more than one.
Recorded corporate activity linked to companies in this landscape.
wellness shot brand Dose raised $47 million this year
Nokia has finally confirmed the sale of its Here mapping business for €2.8bn ($3bn) to a consortium of Audi, BMW, and Daimler.
Meanwhile, Etsy announced after the quarter ended that it has decided to sell Reverb, a subsidiary marketplace it acquired in 2019, for $105 million in an all-cash transaction, Baker said.
Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Rush Street Interactive in the 4th quarter worth $34,000.
Strategic acquisition to strengthen OneMind Technologies and expand market reach.
Become a pre-IPO Mode shareholder and earn up to 100% bonus shares today.
Alex Jones’s media company, Infowars, is now the property of satirical publication The Onion.
StreamLayer has filed a notice of an exempt offering of securities to raise $3 Million in New Equity and Debt Financing.
Revenues of $126.8 million – down 37% from $199.8 million in Q4 2024.
Atlas World Sports launches AtlasDFS daily fantasy platform
Top 10 categories among 87 recorded events in the 24-month window.
1 companies with recorded IPO activity
IPO activity1 reports
2 tracked people moves
Promotion President
Appointment Chief Technology Officer
Products, platforms and features in the recorded window
Video Engagement & Monetization
Ad insertion platform
1 tracked suits
Sale of Infowars to The Onion blockedRegulatory · Verdict
Reported company results in the recorded window.
Median across 47 reported growth observations; companies may contribute multiple periods.
Company-linked deal reports; status is preserved as recorded.
| Acquirer → target | Status | Date | Value / context |
|---|---|---|---|
| nexstar→Tribune Media ↗ | Completed | 2026-04-20 | Not stated in snapshot |
| afk media group→reboot illinois ↗ | Announced | 2026-03-15 | Not stated in snapshot |
| sinclair broadcast group→Tribune Media ↗ | Announced | 2025-08-23 | $3.9B |
| BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen→Here ↗ | Rumored | 2025-08-10 | Not stated in snapshot |
| Uber, Baidu→Here ↗ | Rumored | 2025-08-10 | $3.0B |
| Audi, BMW, Daimler Consortium→Here ↗ | Announced | 2025-08-10 | Not stated in snapshot |
A discussion or rumour is not a completed transaction. An unstated value is not zero.
1,670 postings in the preceding 12 months. The full 2,172-posting snapshot covers 41 employers.
43 tracked postings mention remote work.
1,003 postings specify a level.
Top skills across 2,172 tracked postings in the available jobs snapshot.
Median across 101 postings with pay data, expressed in USD.
| Company | Employees |
|---|---|
| redbox ↗ | 1,408 |
| Vivid Seats ↗ | 575 |
| Rush Street Interactive ↗ | 505 |
| chicago sun-times ↗ | 363 |
| the big ten network ↗ | 200 |
| Chicago Public Media ↗ | 200 |
| Chicago Board of Election ↗ | 172 |
| Packback ↗ | 117 |
165 founders and chief executives across 123 companies.
Homage, ex-Strava, ex-Calera Capital, University of Notre Dame
State University of New York
Ex-Co-Founder Neokast, SempiTech, Dosensio. FH Aargau BSc 2001, Northwestern University MSc 2004, PhD 2007
Off Center Ventures, ex-Off Center Creative, ex-The Chicago Leadership Alliance, The Junto Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, 2014
Mozaic Io, ex-Jammber Com Powering The People That Power Music, ex-Jammber, University of Oklahoma, 2006
Co-Founder Bald Einstein, DANNIX, ex-CEO Networked Insights, Vidus, Silicon Sierra, deloitte.
Mexico Home Capital, Wakame Global, ex-Cohen Financial. Amherst College 1991
Storm Ventures, ex-Amazon, ex-Revinate, Princeton University, 1997
Co-Founder & CEO BETSPERTS, ex-Stanley Black & Decker, Chipys. Central Michigan University 2018
CEO BrandSpins Foundation, Founder SempreSocial, RollingStone
Ex-Co-Founder & CEO Kharabeesh, Think Arabia, Wikikiwis. Jordan University of Science and Technology BS 2004
Chicago Public Media, PowerReviews, Founder Built In, ex-Pocket Casts, OneSpan, Founder & CEO Wavetable Labs. The George Washington University 1992
15 profiles with education records.
6 profiles with prior-work records.
Profiles cover recorded founders and leaders; contact details remain in Radar.
63,489 articles in the measured 12-month window.
Media & Entertainment coverage tagged Chicago · articles per complete quarter
| Quarter | Articles |
|---|---|
| 2021Q2 | 11,931 |
| 2021Q3 | 14,029 |
| 2021Q4 | 11,741 |
| 2022Q1 | 14,170 |
| 2022Q2 | 13,044 |
| 2022Q3 | 13,670 |
| 2022Q4 | 11,912 |
| 2023Q1 | 12,806 |
| 2023Q2 | 15,696 |
| 2023Q3 | 14,495 |
| 2023Q4 | 14,839 |
| 2024Q1 | 18,565 |
| 2024Q2 | 16,527 |
| 2024Q3 | 24,984 |
| 2024Q4 | 17,320 |
| 2025Q1 | 22,930 |
| 2025Q2 | 18,414 |
| 2025Q3 | 23,016 |
| 2025Q4 | 17,860 |
| 2026Q1 | 15,355 |
| 2026Q2 | 7,258 |
Article volume measures coverage, not market sales.
123 recorded company events across 17 companies; percentages use that event total.
Media & Entertainment coverage tagged Chicago · ranked by full-period article count.
Recent and prior counts use the source comparison windows.
United States comparison coverage
| Keyword | Recent | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| conceptual rock albums | 6,878 | 530 | 1198% |
| countries | 3,925 | 1,959 | 100% |
| stablecoin fx impact | 3,898 | 2,193 | 78% |
| prog rock epics | 3,873 | 37 | 10368% |
| technical rock journeys | 3,733 | 43 | 8581% |
| symphonic rock pieces | 3,733 | 68 | 5390% |
| theatrical rock personas | 3,720 | 117 | 3079% |
| extended rock compositions | 3,222 | 21 | 15243% |
| vaccine decision-making | 3,134 | 2,192 | 43% |
| avant-garde rock | 3,055 | 167 | 1729% |
| tariff negotiations | 14,057 | 23,447 | -40% |
| college playoffs | 5,144 | 13,555 | -62% |
| nba team legends | 1,847 | 12,204 | -85% |
| historic nba games | 701 | 12,142 | -94% |
| ncaa updates | 4,825 | 11,429 | -58% |
United States comparison coverage
territories, disputed islands, tariff negotiations
37.9% critical · 26.3% positiveinflation reports fx, currency intervention policies, investment deal
36.2% critical · 42.9% positivenba expansion teams, nba team legends, historic nba games
35.2% critical · 44.2% positiveMedia & Entertainment coverage tagged Chicago. Topic labels describe recorded classifications and can include broad context.
Clear definitions for making better comparisons.
It measures the tracked company ecosystem, recorded funding, hiring and other available evidence. It is not a market-size estimate.
No. A company can belong to several segments, so segment counts and funding can overlap.
A dash or unavailable panel means the current reviewed source snapshot does not support that figure.
Company ecosystem snapshot: 2 September 2026. Funding is recorded in USD; filed accounts retain their stated currency and reporting basis. Each section identifies its own coverage. The news and research behind these sections is explorable in Prism.
Canonical landscape ↗