Amazon
Facts
- HQ
- SEATTLE
- Sectors
- E-commerce, Cloud computing, Aerospace/Satellites, Media/Streaming, Advertising, Consumer devices
- Founded
- 1994
- Type
- Corporation Seattle business license
- Employees
- 1600000
- Registered name
- Amazon.Com Inc Seattle business license
- Stage
- Public
Ethos acquires Seattle digital-wills startup Tomorrow; 600,000 users and 20 employees join insurer
Seattle startup Tomorrow, which offers iOS and web apps for creating legal wills, trusts, and other estate documents and has helped over 600,000 users, has been acquired by life insurer Ethos. Tomorrow’s 20 employees will join Ethos’s 250-person team, and the Tomorrow apps will continue operating under the Tomorrow brand for now.
Doorstead launches Seattle service as SF-based property-management startup with $12.5M Series A expands nationally
Doorstead, a San Francisco property-management startup founded by former Uber employees, has launched service in the Seattle region as it expands nationally; the company raised $12.5 million in a 2022 Series A and manages just under $1 billion in assets.
ZeroAvia opens R&D center at Everett’s Paine Field; $5.5M refit and $350K Washington grant support hydrogen-electric powertrain work
ZeroAvia is opening an R&D center at Everett’s Paine Field near Seattle to develop hydrogen-electric aircraft powertrains, with plans to begin customer rollouts in 2024 and potentially build a North American manufacturing hub there. The Paine Field site converts warehouse space into offices and labs, received a $350,000 Washington grant, and will employ 20–30 people initially while ZeroAvia pursues larger-scale manufacturing and powertrains for bigger aircraft.
Thingy AQ to test Amazon’s Sidewalk Bridge Pro to connect remote wildfire air-quality sensors
Bellevue startup Thingy AQ builds environmental sensor systems to monitor air quality for farmers and first responders and won $25,000 in the EPA Wildland Fire Sensors Challenge in 2018. Thingy will test Amazon’s new Sidewalk Bridge Pro to extend connectivity to remote sensors for wildfire prediction and data sharing with first responders.
Ciara and Russell Wilson’s House of LR&C to raise up to $15M in Series A after revenue hits eight figures
The House of LR&C, a Seattle fashion house co-founded by Ciara and Russell Wilson, plans to raise up to $15 million in a Series A this year after reaching eight-figure revenue and roughly 70% growth; the company previously raised a $7 million convertible note led by Harlem Capital.
GeekWire revises GeekWire 200: firms >15 years old and majority PE-owned ineligible, rankings shift to quarterly in 2022
GeekWire is changing the criteria for its GeekWire 200 startup rankings: beginning in 2022, majority private-equity-owned companies and companies 15 years or older will be ineligible, and the index will move from monthly to quarterly updates, which will reshape the top ranks including removing Blue Origin.
Brian Goldfarb named Tenable CMO; Elizabeth Hamren becomes Discord COO; Kurt DelBene confirmed as VA CIO; Madrona adds three strategic directors
Several tech industry hires and appointments: Brian Goldfarb is CMO at Tenable; Elizabeth Hamren is COO at Discord; Kurt DelBene confirmed as VA CIO; Madrona Venture Group added three strategic directors; Christina Mautz joined Panopto.
Amazon’s $2B Climate Pledge Fund Invests in Hippo Harvest and Amogy to Cut Grocery and Shipping Emissions
Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund has invested in two climate tech startups — Hippo Harvest, which develops closed-loop greenhouse systems using robotics and ML to cut water use and emissions, and Amogy, which converts ammonia into power for heavy transport — part of Amazon’s push to reach net zero by 2040. The moves aim to reduce emissions across Amazon’s grocery stores and shipping operations amid rising company emissions.
Flexe hires Amazon biometrics lead Lara Rogers as SVP/GM; Magnify names ex‑Amazon Sajo Jacob CTO; Schuster joins Open Systems board
Several Seattle-area tech companies announced senior hires and board moves: Flexe hired former Amazon biometrics leader Lara Rogers as SVP and GM; Magnify named Sajo Jacob as CTO and co‑founder after a $6M launch; Open Systems added ex‑Microsoft exec Gavriella Schuster to its board; Fabric and Scener also announced senior appointments.
General Fusion raises $130M with Bezos Expeditions participation, total funding reaches ~$300M as firm readies UK fusion demonstration plant
General Fusion raised $130 million, bringing its total funding to about $300 million, with participation from Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Expeditions; the company will use the funds to advance its fusion technology, build a Fusion Demonstration Plant near London, and expand research facilities in Vancouver and Tennessee.
Yadhu Gopalan
Yadhu Gopalan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Esper, the DevOps platform for intelligent edge devices. Esper is helping thousands of enterprise customers manage their device fleets, with the first DevOps enterprise-grade functionality with the ability to scale. Yadhu has over 25 years and 35 patents in embedded systems and security. Code he has built helps run over 100 million devices globally. He has held engineering leadership roles over the years, including owning systems engineering for Amazon, designing back-end solutions for FireOS and serving as the Chief Architect of Microsoft Windows CE. Yadhu spends his free time recharging by hiking…
Inspectify raises $8M Series A led by Nine Four Ventures; total funding $10M to digitize home inspections
Inspectify, a two-year-old Seattle proptech startup that provides a booking marketplace and inspection software, raised $8 million in a Series A led by Nine Four Ventures to digitize home inspection reporting and aggregate inspection data.
Madrona and Goldman Sachs Publish Inaugural IA40 of Top 40 Private AI Business-App Startups; Four Seattle Firms Included
Madrona Venture Group and Goldman Sachs released the inaugural Intelligent Applications Top 40 (IA40) list of private companies building business AI applications, based on votes from 40 venture firms plus Amazon and Microsoft and narrowed by 50 judges from over 220 nominees. Four Seattle-area companies — Amperity, OctoML, SeekOut, and one unnamed here — made the list; Amperity recently raised $100 million to reach unicorn status and OctoML raised $85 million.
Deloitte’s 2021 Fast 500 Includes 26 Washington Firms; Coinme Tops Seattle Growth at 2,198% (Rank 78)
Deloitte’s 2021 North American Technology Fast 500 ranks the fastest-growing tech companies by revenue growth from 2017–2020; 26 Washington-based firms made the list, with 24 from the greater Seattle area and strong representation from Bellevue and software/SaaS companies. Coinme led local growth with 2,198% growth (ranked 78th), and Washington firms comprised about 5% of the full Fast 500.
Washington Dept. of Commerce and Find Ventures launch Equitable Innovations Accelerator offering up to $100,000 grants to 10 Washington startups
The Washington State Department of Commerce and Find Ventures are launching the Equitable Innovations Accelerator to provide up to $100,000 in philanthropic, non-dilutive grants, programming, and mentorship to ten Washington tech startups led by Black, women, refugee, or other historically marginalized founders. The program, supported by private donors and the Washington Technology Industry Association, aims to address disparities in early-stage funding highlighted by low VC investment rates for underrepresented founders.
OfferUp appoints Melinda Starbird as first chief people and diversity officer; Steve Hobbs named Washington secretary of state; Convoy engineering VP Tim Prouty moves to Headway
OfferUp named Melinda Starbird as its first chief people and diversity officer; she previously held senior HR roles at Auth0, Avanade, Whitepages and Hiya. The brief also reports Washington Gov. Inslee appointed State Senator Steve Hobbs as secretary of state effective Nov. 22, and Convoy VP of engineering Tim Prouty left to become VP of engineering at mental-health platform Headway.
Scott Jacobson
Scott Jacobson is a Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group, where he has spent over 14 years helping early-stage technology entrepreneurs in the Pacific Northwest build and scale their companies. Scott is on the boards of companies like Rover, Flexe, and CommerceIQ, and focuses much of his energy on consumer businesses or business technologies that have a significant consumer component. Prior to joining Madrona, Scott worked at Amazon, where he did two tours of duty, leading product management for Amazon’s 3rd-party seller platform and working on the launch of the original Kindle. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jane Park’s Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp. Raises $230M in IPO; All-Female SPAC Begins Consumer M&A Search
Jane Park, CEO of newly public Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp., led the all-female SPAC that raised $230 million in an IPO and rang the NYSE opening bell as the team begins searching for a consumer company to acquire. A former Starbucks executive and founder of Julep Beauty and Tokki, Park — believed to be the first Korean-American woman to take a company public on the NYSE — discusses SPAC strategy, consumer brands in the Amazon era, and her immigrant family background on the GeekWire Podcast.
Jane Park on SPACs, the immigrant ethos, and brands in the Amazon era
Jane Park, the CEO of newly public Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp., hadn't imagined herself leading a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, before accepting the job. She decided to consider the pitch from venture capitalist Isabelle Freidheim for one reason. “It took some convincing, a little bit. I wasn’t sure if I had the right capabilities. I have always sat on the entrepreneur side. So to be on the acquiring/money side is a new perspective and vantage point for me,” she said. “I don’t think I would have taken the call if it wasn’t the fact that it was an…
Helion Raises $500M — Potential $1.7B More — to Build Polaris Fusion Generator, Aiming for 2024 Demonstration in Everett, Wash.
Helion Energy raised $500 million (with up to $1.7 billion more contingent on milestones) to build its Polaris fusion generator and finish a demonstration facility in Everett, Wash., aiming to operate in 2024 and move toward commercializing fusion power.
WhyLabs, an AI2 spinout led by CEO Alessya Visnjic, raises $10M and launches AI Observatory to monitor live ML models
WhyLabs, a Seattle startup spun out of AI2 and led by CEO Alessya Visnjic, raised $10 million and launched AI Observatory, a tool to monitor and diagnose live machine-learning models for anomalies and "model meltdowns." The platform offers an open-source library and real-time alerts, positioning WhyLabs as a Datadog-like monitoring service focused on backend ML/AI, and saw adoption by over a dozen organizations in its first week.
Bellevue’s tech boom draws Amazon, Apptio and major firms as city positions itself as Seattle alternative
Bellevue has become a major tech hub attracting companies like Amazon, Apptio, T-Mobile, Smartsheet, OfferUp and Icertis thanks to its downtown, livability, low crime and business-friendly policies, with major expansions including Amazon’s plan to employ 25,000 there.
Amazon’s $2B Climate Pledge Fund backs 11 climate tech firms as company works to cut emissions by 2040
Amazon launched a $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund in June 2020 and has invested hundreds of millions in 11 climate tech companies to accelerate technologies that help it and other corporations reach carbon neutrality by 2040; the fund pairs capital with Amazon's operational support to scale solutions. Matt Peterson, director of the fund, says Amazon leverages its footprint and internal adoption (e.g., Rivian vehicles) to help portfolio companies cross the "valley of death" as the company confronts rising emissions.
Assembly acquires bootstrapped Seattle ad-tech startup Pacvue in reported nine-figure deal
Pacvue, a four-year-old Seattle e-commerce software startup that was bootstrapped without VC funding, was acquired by Los Angeles-based Assembly in a deal reported at nine figures; Pacvue provided advertising and sales tools for marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart and had tripled revenue yearly with about 150 employees.
GeekWire Podcast: Qumulo CEO Bill Richter on Remote Work, Seattle Tech Pay Rise to $158K, and Qumulo’s $1.2B Valuation
GeekWire’s podcast interviews Qumulo CEO Bill Richter about post-pandemic remote work, trends in tech salaries (Seattle up 4.6% to $158,000; U.S. average down 1.1% to $152,000), and implications for hiring, cloud storage, and self-driving cars. Richter discusses Qumulo’s remote-work approach, decentralized decision-making by functional leaders, and the company’s $1.2 billion valuation from its latest funding round.
People
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Jamie Siminoff Executive, Vice President
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Steve Rabuchin Executive, Vice President of Project Kuiper (Amazon Leo)
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Ben Wild Co-founder of Hubble Network, Former Amazon Product Lead
