West Loop Ventures

West Loop Ventures is a Chicago, Illinois-based seed and Series A venture capital firm founded in 2017 to back B2B financial technology startups that solve real problems for institutional finance, insurance, banking, trading and market structure, capital markets, finance back office, risk, data and process automation. The fund's pitch leans on Chicago's identity as one of the world's largest financial centers, home to roughly 20,000 fintech-adjacent companies and trading firms, and on its founders' deep operational background in that ecosystem. The team is intentionally small at two partners, referred to publicly as Jeff and Kenny, with a combined 40 years of fintech experience; Kenny was reportedly one of the earliest high-frequency traders in the world and spent years coding mathematical trading models for global listed markets, while Jeff brings complementary fintech operating depth. Target Fund I size is $30 million with an initial check size of $100K to $500K, and the geographic scope spans the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the EU, generally as a co-investor. Across roughly 14 disclosed portfolio companies the firm has produced three exits, including five acquisitions across the broader portfolio, most notably investment research and analytics platform YCharts, wealth-management risk software Nitrogen Wealth, formerly Riskalyze, and SPV infrastructure provider Vauban, the most recent exit in July 2022. The firm's most recent disclosed new investment was Series A insurer-tech company Seel in January 2022. By concentrating on B2B fintech for institutional finance and drawing on Chicago's market-structure expertise, West Loop Ventures backs founders solving real problems in finance.