Chase Bonhag

Chase Bonhag is the co-founder and CEO of FirstIgnite, an AI-powered business intelligence platform based in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to founding the Y Combinator-backed software startup in 2019, he served as a venture capital associate at Illinois Ventures, where he helped oversee approximately $65 million in assets under management dedicated to early-stage university research spin-outs. He subsequently worked as an investor at TechNexus Venture Collaborative, focusing on corporate seed-stage deep tech investments across multiple sectors. Under his leadership, FirstIgnite has expanded its software tools to over 75 universities across five continents and recently achieved 388% year-over-year revenue growth, aided by strategic backing from Illini Angels. Bonhag holds an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His professional background remains focused on accelerating scientific innovation by bridging the gap between academic research facilities and corporate commercialization.