A Snapshot Of Latino Business Power In Chicago

It’s people like Jennifer Aguilar, Executive Director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce and neighborhood native, who see the impact of Latino-owned businesses in Chicago daily. Nestled in Chicago’s southwest side, Little Village is home to a community that is more than 80 percent Latino and highly entrepreneurial. Much so, that in past years its iconic corridor, 26th Street, has been reported to rake in $900M in annual revenue – all in the span of two miles.

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

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

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

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

In 2017, she founded SHENIX, an educational fintech platform to help Latinas accelerate their economic progress via financial education, career planning and salary negotiation resources. She recalls growing up in the neighborhood and having English-speakers come to her mother’s door to sell her financial services and having to step in to translate for language and context. Years later, working as a professional in the finance space, she is better able to guide others on financial literacy via her online platform and client base.

“I’m seeing them being able to straddle not just being in the Latino community, but they are going to global stages,” Camargo said, citing Latina clients she’s worked with in the city who have taken over produce distribution abroad, construction, family businesses and more.

Among the founders speaking to a global audience online are resident Chicagoans Aidee and Mónica San Miguel of VOLVERde, a digital sustainable marketplace sourcing from BIPOC-owned brands. Since launching, they have left their jobs in engineering and fintech to pursue building the business full-time. A year in, Aidee and Mónica say they are grateful for Latino entrepreneurs who have created culture-based brands locally, the communities they’ve fostered and for being transparent about their challenges as they build.

“Being able to have coffee, connect with them and share the struggles and trials and tribulations has been helpful,” Monica said. As they think about investment in their business, they shared that they will seek mission-driven capital fully aligned with their business.

Indeed, Latinos aren’t only present in the small business category; they are also making strides in the startup ecosystem. Across the U.S., Latino-owned businesses operate tech-centric firms at higher rates than white-owned businesses with median revenues notably similar across both groups, according to a recent Stanford report. Locally, compared to other top startup ecosystems, Chicago sees a higher share of startups with a Black or Hispanic or Latino founder participating in venture capital deals, per a 2022 Chicago Business Bulletin Report.

Manuela Zoninsein, founder of waste-free vending station, Kadeya has been among the Latino entrepreneurs to fundraise more than $6 million as she scales her company in Chicago.

“We’re at an exciting inflection point: increasing depth of expertise and capital at our fingertips, yet still pretty flat, democratic, and accessible,” she said.

At a national level, U.S. Latino-owned businesses do 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 Ventures, says that while the Midwest has traditionally been more risk averse, with investors seeking companies that have sustainable revenue generation business from the start, it’s exactly where she sees opportunity.

Hernández and her lean team manage the Chicago-based firm with $60 million in assets under management, investing in primarily 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. Per a memo from 2024, the portfolio has a 55-45 split between male and female CEOs, and more than 60 percent of founding CEOs identifying as a racial or ethnic minority.

“I am seeing in the Midwest, the Chicago ecosystem expand,” Hernández said. “There are more firms being created here and more firms becoming established and successfully raising third and fourth funds.”

Among the people bringing capital to the city is Desiree Vargas Wrigley, Founding General Partner at Velocity Catalyst, a $50 million hybrid fund to invest in pre-seed startups and emerging fund managers, which launched just earlier this year. Prior to launching the firm, she’s been a serial startup founder and driver of capital-related solutions for founders and investors via projects like 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 mentorship to support overlooked founders,” she said.

Other solutions to driving more capital to Chicago? They include angel investing networks to power underrepresented founders leading promising startups at the earliest stages, where traditional lenders might be slower to invest.

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

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

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