FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact:
Kim Blomquist
872.222.5279
kim@mhub.org
Investment Management Company of mHUB, mHUB Ventures, continues venture-backed accelerator upon completion of first portfolio.
(CHICAGO - September 9, 2025) – mHUB Ventures, deploying capital in early-stage physical product and hardtech startups, announces the first close of its second venture fund, Spark Fund II. The targeted $20M fund will make seed and follow-on investments in 65 early-stage hardtech startups over the next four years and continue de-risking those investments through mHUB’s nationally ranked accelerator programs driven by industry.
Building on the success of its inaugural Spark Fund I (formerly the Product Impact Fund), which closed $15.1M in 2021, Spark Fund II expands mHUB’s capacity to drive hardtech innovation and manufacturing entrepreneurship in critical sectors such as energy, health, and smart and sustainable manufacturing technology. The fund will announce its first investments this October, coinciding with the launch of mHUB’s next accelerator cohort, in partnership with Current, focused on water technologies for industrial applications.
"Hardtech innovation requires patient capital, deep technical support, industry expertise, and resources," said Haven Allen, CEO and Co-founder, mHUB, and Managing Partner, mHUB Ventures. "Spark Fund II enables us to back incredible founders building physical product solutions for the world’s most consequential industry challenges—bringing more strategic capital into spaces that are foundational to U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and resilience."
Spark Fund II will deploy capital in conjunction with eight new accelerator cohorts that de-risk startups at the pre-seed / seed stage and address the national market failure of commercializing advanced technologies out of national labs and universities. Technologies of interest include decarbonization, energy storage, materials, smart infrastructure, remote monitoring, disease management, therapeutics, femtech, robotics, predictive ops, circularity, edge computing, and more.
The mHUB Ventures approach includes direct investment, prototyping resources, and industry-connected programming that accelerates and de-risks commercialization. Partners on previous cohorts have included Constellation, Invenergy, Endeavor Health, GE HealthCare, Baxter, Panduit, Avnet, and Nicor Gas.
The accelerator is integrated into the larger mHUB innovation center that supports over 1,200 entrepreneurs annually and offers a rich talent pool, additional funding pathways, and connections into industry beyond each program’s supporting partners. This unique, award-winning platform has generated over $5B in manufacturing economic activity, creating hundreds of sustainable businesses and thousands of jobs.
The first fund, mHUB Ventures Spark Fund I, invested in 54 companies and supported six accelerator cohorts. To date, 86% of Spark Fund I portfolio companies have gone on to raise follow-on capital, collectively attracting $6 for every $1 invested by mHUB. The current portfolio spans companies from 20 different markets, plus eight international companies from the UK, Canada, and Estonia.
Over 80 limited partners have backed mHUB Ventures, including institutional investors, family offices, corporations, and individual stakeholders from the broader manufacturing and innovation ecosystem.
“mHUB has anticipated the needs, built the infrastructure, and cultivated the relationships to transform the hardtech entrepreneurial experience from a lonely, obstacle-ridden challenge into a community-driven, tactically supported opportunity,” said Aaron Zell, Senior Associate, Zell Family Office. “The Spark Funds uniquely bring together mHUB’s capabilities, entrepreneurs, corporate stakeholders, and investors to deliver practical and transformative innovation to the real-world economy.”
Over the past quarter alone, numerous Spark Fund I portfolio companies have seen growth investments including Hyivy, Kazadi Enterprises, and Madison Scientific (MadSci), which closed an oversubscribed $10M seed round with mHUB Ventures creating an SPV for current limited partners, setting the stage for similar future vehicles and validating the accelerator-to-investment model.
To learn more about investment opportunities, visit mhubventures.com.
About mHUB
mHUB is the nation’s leading independent innovation center dedicated to accelerating hardtech development—where physical products are designed, built, and launched to solve real-world challenges in energy, healthcare, sustainability, and advanced manufacturing. At the intersection of innovation and industry, mHUB incubates high-potential startups to commercialize critical technologies faster and with intention. Based in Chicago, mHUB operates an 80,000+ square-foot prototyping and micro-factory alongside deep technical and entrepreneurial mentorship, a robust investor and pilot network, and U.S.-based suppliers and manufacturing expertise. mHUB’s model includes mHUB Ventures, which has invested in 54 startups across smart and sustainable manufacturing, energy tech, and medtech, and HardTech Development Services, an R&D consultancy for manufacturers. Since launching in 2017, mHUB has supported over 1,200 entrepreneurs and 500 startups that have generated more than $1.96B in revenue, launched over 1,700 products, created nearly 7,000 jobs, and raised over $2B in capital. mHUB plays a critical role in strengthening U.S. competitiveness and building the physical future from the heart of the Midwest.