Landon in the Loop
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🧫 iFAB Funding Fuels Illinois

🧫 iFAB Funding Fuels Illinois

AND Tech Events in Chicago

Landon Campbell
July 08, 2024

66th Edition

✍🏽 This Week’s Lineup:

🧫 iFAB Funding Fuels Illinois

🌻 Chicago Voted Most Livable City

📆 Events Around the City

🔙 Previous Editions of the Driver’s Seat

🔙 Highlights from Last Week

First things first! The Driver’s Seat is now Landon in the Loop. Make sure to save our new website: www.landonsloop.com 👇🏽

I spent last week with my fellow Seed GMs at our Columbus HQ: (from right to left) Avoilan in Atlanta, Landon in Chicago, Alanna in Canada, Anish in Austin, and Tim in Denver.👇🏽

🧫 iFAB Funding Fuels Illinois

From left: Beth Conerty, Nicole Bateman, and Carly McCrory-McKay will help lead the iFAB Tech Hub

The iFAB Tech Hub has been awarded $51m from the EDA's Tech Hubs Program.

Let’s see what this means for our region:

What is iFAB?

The Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing (iFAB) is a program focused on advancing agriculture and through bioprocessing technology.
Led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with participation from Parkland College, Richland Community College, and ADM, the iFAB consortium will benefit from a Phase 2 Implementation grant to enhance its initiatives.
iFAB is one of 12 tech hubs sharing a total of $504m in funding, allocated under the CHIPS Act. Notably, four of these tech hubs are located in the Midwest.

Regional Resources

Central Illinois will leverage its feedstock production of corn and soybeans, integrating local supply chains for efficient and sustainable biomanufacturing processes.
Our region's strong transportation infrastructure will help with efficient distribution, connecting local production to national and global markets.
Partnerships with institutions like UIUC will drive futuristic innovation, making Central Illinois a hub for cutting-edge biotechnological research and applications.

Why This Matters

The future of Agtech is being built in Central Illinois:

Did you know:

Illinois is the top producer of soybeans and second in corn production.
Our state has over 71,000 farms, 96% family-owned, with a third including livestock.
Agriculture supports 6% of Illinois jobs, totaling over 482,000.
Illinois hosts 2,640 food manufacturing companies, turning crops and livestock into food and industrial products.
The Chicago metro area has one of the largest concentrations of food-related businesses globally.

Illinois has an opportunity to lead innovation in precision fermentation, which is projected to reach $200B by 2040 and create one million jobs by 2030.

🌻 Chicago Voted Most Livable City

The Economist listed Chicago as one of the most livable cities in North America.

Housing Affordability (Livable)

Chicago leads the list of major US cities for first-time homebuyers, with 38% of homes on the market affordable to them in the first quarter of 2024.
This is significantly higher than the national average of 29% and far surpasses cities like Los Angeles, where only 1% of homes are affordable.
As the third-largest city in the US, Chicago offers a cost of living more similar to smaller, less dynamic cities.
This balance of urban amenities and affordability makes it an attractive option for both residents and businesses.

Workable

Many large companies have offices in Chicago, and the city has the third-highest number of Fortune 500 companies in the nation.
Chicago ranks third in the number of AI job postings.
We have one of the most diverse economies in the US (no one industry takes up more than 13% of the overall economy)
Chicago is the number one city for female founders.
Chicago is a top city for return-to-office numbers. 👇🏽

My Thoughts (everything else)

Having moved to Chicago from the Bay Area, I haven’t found another US city as special as the Windy City.

Chicago has been consistently ranked as a top walkable city for how easy it is to navigate.
Our city has a vibrant number of activities, events, and a 10/10 food scene.
The locals are friendly.
Top universities and a hub for top talent nationally.
The weather isn’t as bad as people say it is (in fact, the data says winters are getting warmer YoY).