Nordstrom
Facts
- Sectors
- Retail, Department Store, E-commerce
- Founded
- 1890
- Stage
- Public
Stephen Curry-backed Penny Jar Capital leads $1M investment in Seattle pay-equity startup Syndio
Seattle pay-equity startup Syndio raised a $1 million investment led by Penny Jar Capital that is anchored by NBA star Stephen Curry, adding to the company’s more than $30 million raised over four years and bringing Curry active involvement and public support for pay equity.
Neiman Marcus Group to Acquire Seattle Merchandising SaaS Startup Stylyze; Founders and 12 Staff to Join
Neiman Marcus Group announced it will acquire Seattle startup Stylyze, which provides merchandising-as-a-service software to online home and fashion retailers; Stylyze's founders and 12 staff will join Neiman, and terms were not disclosed.
Pioneer Square Labs spins out Dance Church Go with Dance Church; membership platform launches at $19/month or $199/year
Pioneer Square Labs is partnering with Seattle’s Dance Church to launch Dance Church Go, a dance-on-demand membership platform priced at $19/month or $199/year, after the company expanded into livestreaming during the pandemic and hired Clara Siegel as CEO.
Madrona Venture Labs raises $8M and turns investors like Spencer Rascoff into co‑founders of spinouts
Madrona Venture Labs has raised $8 million for its fourth fund and introduced a model that makes investors — including Spencer Rascoff, Julie Larson-Green and Elena Donio — co-founders, board members, and advisors of its spinouts to attract talent and accelerate startup formation. Founded in 2014, the Seattle-based studio has spun out more than a dozen companies, including recent spinouts Zeitworks, Simplata, and Stratify.
Madrona Venture Labs’ Pendulum, led by Sam Clark and Mark Ledwich, launches tech to identify QAnon videos across YouTube, BitChute and Rumble
Pendulum, a Madrona Venture Labs startup led by Sam Clark and Mark Ledwich, builds technology to classify publicly available video content and identify harmful narratives like QAnon across platforms including YouTube, BitChute, and Rumble. The company released a report on QAnon videos, has interest from advertisers and government groups, and analyzes audio and image content though its business model remains undisclosed.
Maria Colacurcio (Syndio CEO, Smartsheet Co-Founder) on category creation, leadership lessons from parenting, skills over experience, and the power of focus
Syndio just raised a $17M series B to help companies fix gender and racial pay equity problems. It's a big, complex, and new category. They already have 100+ customers like Nordstrom, Salesforce, and Adobe. Maria was previously co-founder at Smartsheet and a tech veteran. She is all about focus and precision. And she explains how parenting 6 kids, working with veterans, startup marketing, and big companies have all helped her find focus in her mission at Syndio.
Mailchimp acquires Chatitive; CEO Andy Hollenbeck to lead conversational SMS at Mailchimp
Mailchimp has acquired Seattle SMS-marketing startup Chatitive, a Madrona Venture Labs spinout, integrating its team (fewer than 10 employees) and naming CEO Andy Hollenbeck head of conversational SMS; terms were not disclosed.
Syndio raises $17.1M led by Bessemer to expand PayEQ pay‑equity analytics after surge in 2020 demand
Seattle-based Syndio raised $17.1 million in a new funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners to accelerate development of its PayEQ pay‑equity analytics software amid rising demand in 2020. The company says PayEQ is used by more than 100 firms across 2.3 million employees and that ARR nearly tripled during 2020.
Jonathan Sandals launches Sook Chrome extension to aggregate local Seattle boutique inventory and counter Amazon’s search advantage
Jonathan Sandals, who moved to Seattle in 2019, built Sook, a Chrome extension that aggregates product listings from many small local store websites so shoppers can browse and buy from multiple boutiques in one place. He designed Sook to require no extra work from store owners and to make buying local as easy as shopping on major corporate sites like Amazon.
Progress to Buy Seattle Automation Firm Chef for $220M in Cash; Chef Reports $72M TTM Revenue
Progress, the Bedford, Mass.–based business application platform, will acquire Seattle automation company Chef for $220 million in cash; Chef reported over $72 million in trailing 12-month revenue with more than 95% recurring revenue and about 270 employees. Chef CEO Barry Crist said the deal provides scale to advance Chef’s platform after the company became cash-flow positive and neared full-year profitability.
Syndio raises $7.5M to expand pay-equity software as CEO warns COVID-19 could widen gaps for women and minorities
Seattle HR-tech startup Syndio raised $7.5 million to expand software that analyzes and corrects pay disparities tied to gender, race, ethnicity, or age; CEO Maria Colacurcio warns COVID-19 risks widening pay gaps for women and minorities. Syndio serves 60+ customers including Nordstrom, Slack, Adobe and plans to grow despite the economic downturn, backed by investors including Emerson Collective and Voyager Capital.
Amazon: Savior or villain?
Is Amazon good for Seattle? That's the question a community forum asked this week, and the results point to the complex relationship Amazon has with the communities around it. Plus, Uber and Lyft are the latest tech companies to dive into healthcare and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant gives us a reason to laugh... or not. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A tech renaissance
This week, the Week In Geek comes to you from GeekWire HQ2 in Pittsburgh. Amazon is pushing further Prime integration with Whole Foods and we dive into the tech renaissance happening in Pittsburgh and how the city is preparing for challenges that come along with a tech boom. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seattle Startup Armoire, Led and Invested in by Women, Offers Clothing Rentals with Personal Stylists to Save Time for Professional Women
Armoire is a Seattle-based women’s clothing rental startup launched in 2016, offering personal styling and rental services focused on saving busy professional women time. The company is woman-led in leadership, investment, and operations, aiming to address workplace outfit biases against women.
Health Tech: Disrupting healthcare from the inside
Tech is all about disruption. Healthcare is about slow and steady change. How do you merge those worlds? For Mike McSherry and Mary Haggard, the answer was to innovate form the inside out. Mary runs Providence St. Joseph Health's startup incubator and Mike is the founder and CEO of Xealth, its first spinout. We hear about their work to change the healthcare system from the inside on this live Health Tech episode. Thank you to our sponsor, Providence St. Joseph Health’s Digital and Innovation Group. Follow them at twitter.com/provinnovation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Seattle Startup Fashwire Raises $725,000 to Launch Fashion App Providing Designers Real-Time Consumer Feedback
Seattle startup Fashwire raised $725,000 in a seed round to develop a fashion app that connects designers with consumers for real-time feedback. The app, which has 6,000 users and 1,400 designers in beta, plans a wider launch in August and will generate revenue primarily through designer subscriptions.
