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The Venture Codex

M25

415 N LaSalle Drive Suite 500, Chicago, IL, 60654, United States

Overview

M25 is a Chicago-based Midwest-focused venture capital firm run by Victor Gutwein and Mike Asem. Since the firm's inception in 2015, M25 has invested in 90+ early-stage tech startups in over 24 cities across 11 states in the Midwest. M25's objective, analytical model and collaborative, forward-thinking approach creates a large portfolio spanning several industries across the entire region, allowing them to establish M25 as a key node in Midwest startup ecosystem.

Total investments
76
Lead investments
13
Investments · 12mo
5
Active investors
2

Sector focus

  • Consumer
  • Enterprise
  • Enterprise Software
  • Finance
  • FinTech
  • Venture Capital
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Investment portfolio

  • Immigify

    Led · Seed · Jul 2026

    Immigify offers a digital platform and management dashboard that combines a linked case-data model with built-in AI trained on patterns from successful cases to track visa and green-card eligibility, documents and deadlines. The product emphasizes step-by-step guidance, compliance monitoring and visible status dashboards to reduce missed deadlines and applicants stuck in status limbo. The company reports an early operational milestone of more than 400 visa approvals reached via the platform. Immigify positions itself for B2B adoption by advisors and employers and highlights integrations with adviser and corporate back offices as a next product priority. Planned product work includes standardizing case data, adding integrations, and maturing MLOps practices such as model updates, monitoring and versioning of guidance logic. Financially, the startup is supported by a $1.015 million Pre-Seed raise and accelerator placements in NMotion and Techstars to accelerate go-to-market and pilot opportunities.

  • Benji

    Participated · Seed · May 2026

    Benji provides a single API that enables brands across travel, hospitality, retail, food, and fintech to link loyalty programs for earning, redemption, transfer, and co-acquisition experiences. Its platform aims to reduce integration timelines from months to days, allowing loyalty teams to launch partnerships faster than custom, in-house approaches. Benji’s network includes major programs such as JetBlue’s loyalty program and those of Cook Unity, 1800-Flowers, and Chip City, totaling more than 50 million active members combined. The company plans to expand engineering and go-to-market teams in Chicago and New York using proceeds from its seed round. Benji was founded by serial entrepreneurs Nick Anastasiades, Jon Elron, and Arik Gaisler, whose prior startup 2ndKitchen was acquired by REEF Technology in 2021. The product supports operational use cases across industries to enable cross-industry loyalty partnerships at scale.

  • Stock

    Led · Seed · May 2026

    Stock operates a supply-chain technology platform that matches brands and third-party logistics operators with nonprofits to donate excess and end-of-life inventory. Founder Abby Nawrocki, who worked in U.S. distribution for brands including Zara, Skims and Uniqlo and later at third-party logistics startup Deliverr, launched the company in 2024 after repeatedly encountering retail waste. Nawrocki left her corporate role in October 2025 to build Stock full time. The company targets a sizable waste problem highlighted by a 2022 Avery Dennison report estimating $163 billion in usable inventory discarded annually by U.S. 3PLs. Financially, Stock has just completed a $1.5 million pre-seed round led by M25 with participation from Storytime Capital, Mighty Capital, LongJump and IU Ventures to support its early growth. No revenue, user metrics, or prior institutional funding are reported in the article.

  • ConstructionClock

    Participated · Seed · Dec 2025

    ConstructionClock provides a mobile and web application that leverages geolocation to automate labour time and attendance tracking for small- and mid-sized construction subcontractors. By eliminating manual time sheets, the platform helps curb accidental time theft and protects contractor margins. The company currently serves about 3,000 construction businesses, adding roughly 10 new customers per day; 80 percent of its users are in the United States, with the remainder spread across 23 other countries. ConstructionClock employs 25 people and plans to hire 10 additional sales staff to accelerate growth. Management intends to triple its customer base by the end of 2026 through increased advertising spend and a short (sub-one-week) sales cycle. Looking ahead, the startup will expand into payroll and earned wage access, enabling tradespeople in select U.S. states to receive same-day pay starting mid-2026. Since late 2024 the company has raised CAD $3.2 million in equity financing (a CAD $1.2 million pre-seed followed by the recent CAD $2 million seed), providing the capital to fund these initiatives.

  • Pavewise

    Participated · Seed · Oct 2025

    Pavewise develops a cloud-based platform designed to boost efficiency and compliance across road construction projects. The software blends production tracking, analytics, compliance automation, and granular weather data to turn unpredictable job-site conditions into actionable insights. Contractors use Pavewise to minimize downtime, avoid costly rework, reduce regulatory risk, and improve overall profitability. Led by co-founder and CEO Bryce Wuori, the Bismarck, ND company targets field crews and project managers who need real-time visibility into every stage of a paving job. The firm plans to invest heavily in sales, marketing, and crew acquisition to accelerate its go-to-market strategy following its latest capital raise. No operating metrics such as revenue or user count were disclosed in the article.

Team