A snapshot of Latino business power in Chicago

It is people like Jennifer Aguilar, Executive Director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce and neighborhood native, who sees the impact of Latino businesses in Chicago every day. Located on the southwest side of Chicago, Little Village is home to a community that is more than 80 percent Latino and very entrepreneurial. So much so, that in recent years its flagship corridor, 26th Street, has been reported $900 million in annual revenue – all within the span of two kilometers.

“When someone comes to La Villita, they feel transported to Mexico,” he said. “There are more than 1,000 businesses here in the corridor, more than 100 restaurants. You see carts, you see vendors on the streets selling a variety of items. It’s a very different shopping experience.”

Today, Aguilar is responsible for cultivating an environment in the neighborhood where businesses in his community can leverage his culture to not only be sustainable, but to scale. Through the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, his team provides business owners with business advisory programs, workshops and business advocacy at the city and state level.

The effects of the Latino business generation are felt in Chicago and the state of Illinois, with more than 140,000 businesses in service and north of a $100 billion Latin GDP, for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

While the traditional bricks and mortar that line these 26th Street streets include bakeries, cafes and quinceañera dress shops, many entrepreneurs here have expanded online if not taken the direction of a digital first business. This is the case for the life of Little Village resident and finance professional turned founder, Olga Camargo.

In 2017, he founded SHENIXa fintech educational platform to help Latinos accelerate their economic progress via financial education, career planning and salary negotiation resources. She remembers that she grew up in the neighborhood and that English speakers would come to her mother’s door to sell her financial services and have to go through to translate for the language and the context. Years later, working as a professional in the financial space, he is better able to guide others on financial literacy via his online platform and client base.

“I see that they are able to straddle not only being in the Latino community, but they go on global stages,” said Camargo, citing the Latina clients he worked with in the city who took the distribution of products abroad, the construction , the family. businesses and more.

Among the founders who speak to a global audience online are resident Chicagoans Aidee and Mónica San Miguel of RETURNa sustainable digital marketplace from brands owned by BIPOC. Since its launch, they have left their jobs in engineering and fintech to build the business full time. A year later, Aidee and Mónica say they are grateful for Latin entrepreneurs who have created brands based on local culture, the communities they have favored and for being transparent about their challenges while building.

“Being able to have coffee, connect with them and share struggles and trials and tribulations has been helpful,” Monica said. While thinking about investing in their business, they shared that they are looking for mission-driven capital fully aligned with their business.

Indeed, Latinos are not only present in the category of small businesses; they are also making strides in the startup ecosystem. Across the United States, Latino-owned businesses operate tech-centric businesses at higher rates than white-owned businesses with remarkably similar median revenues in both groups, according to a recent. Stanford report. Locally, compared to other main startup ecosystems, Chicago sees a higher share of startups with a black, Hispanic or Latino founder participating in venture capital business, for a Chicago 2022. Business Bulletin Report.

Manuela Zoninsein, founder of a zero-waste vending station, Kadeya was among Latino entrepreneurs to raise more than $6 million while scaling his company in Chicago.

“We are at an exciting inflection point: increasing depth of knowledge and capital at our doorstep, but still quite flat, democratic and accessible,” he said.

At the national level, Latin American companies continue to experience limited access to venture capital. That said, Chicago had the second highest percentage of venture-backed companies founded by Latino founders in 2023, at eight percent of companies funded, compared to the national two percent figure Samara Mejía Hernández, founding partner of Chingona Venturessays that while the Midwest is traditionally more risk averse, with investors looking for companies that have a business of generating sustainable income from the start, that’s exactly where he sees opportunity.

Hernández and his lean team run the Chicago-based firm with $60 million in assets under management, investing primarily in pre-seed companies. Since its founding in 2019, it has made more than 40 investments in technology sectors from financial to food to health and wellness. For a memo from 2024The portfolio has a 55-45 split between male and female CEOs, and more than 60 percent of founding CEOs identify as a racial or ethnic minority.

“I see in the Midwest, the Chicago ecosystem is expanding,” Hernández said. “There are more companies that are created here and more companies that establish themselves and successfully raise the third and fourth funds.”

Among the people who bring capital to the city is Desiree Vargas Wrigley, Founder General Partner at Speed ​​catalysta $50 million hybrid fund to invest in pre-seed startups and emerging fund managers, which launched just earlier this year. Before launching the company, she was a serial startup founder and lead capital solutions for founders and investors via projects such as TechRise by tech nonprofit P33, designed to support underrepresented founders in Chicago with networks, knowledge and funding.

“Chicago is a rare city where organizations, corporations and the venture community have come together to create collaborative sources of capital, networking and mentoring to support overlooked founders,” he said.

Other solutions to drive more capital to Chicago? They include angel investor networks to nurture underrepresented founders who lead promising early-stage startups, where traditional lenders might be slower to invest.

“These groups not only provide vital funding, but also create a powerful network of mentorship and opportunities,” David Olivencia, CEO of Angeles Investors said.

For some fund managers, such as Hernández, it also means bringing in ecosystem players and capital from the coasts.

“For companies that are building in the Midwest, I think it’s important to bring in coastal VCs as soon as possible,” he said. “I do this when I lead a business that is based here. It is important to have different perspectives and networks on the table to reach milestones and bring growth capital.”