Facts
- HQ
- San Francisco
- Sectors
- Identity and access management, Cybersecurity, Enterprise software
- Stage
- Public
Twilio acquires Seattle business-texting startup Zipwhip for $850M in cash-and-stock deal
Twilio is acquiring Seattle business-texting startup Zipwhip for about $850 million in a cash-and-stock deal, a transaction that closed on July 14. Zipwhip, founded in 2007, pivoted to enable businesses to send and receive texts from landlines and toll-free numbers, and Twilio says the acquisition advances their shared vision for business messaging.
Mastercard to Buy Seattle Identity Startup Ekata for $850M; Deal to Close Within Six Months
Mastercard will acquire Seattle identity-verification startup Ekata for $850 million; Ekata, spun out of Whitepages in 2019 with about 200 employees, serves over 2,000 customers and its tech will be integrated into Mastercard's real-time identity services. The deal is expected to close within six months amid rising demand for digital identity solutions.
GeekWire Opens Voting for 13th Annual Awards; Deal of the Year Finalists Include $6.5B Auth0 Acquisition and Multi‑Hundred‑Million Funding Rounds
GeekWire has opened community voting for its 13th annual GeekWire Awards, highlighting Deal of the Year finalists across Fundings and IPOs/Acquisitions from Pacific Northwest tech companies. Voting runs through April 30, winners announced May 20 at the virtual awards presented by Wave Business.
GeekWire 200: Auth0, Rover Among Top 10 but Set to ‘Graduate’ as Tanium and Outreach Climb
GeekWire’s monthly GeekWire 200 ranking shows established Pacific Northwest startups like Auth0 and Rover among the top 10 but poised to “graduate” after Okta’s acquisition and Rover’s SPAC IPO, while companies such as OfferUp, Moz, PayScale, Puppet and Clio are positioned to move up. The list highlights movers like Tanium and Outreach and notes recent major funding and leadership news across the region’s startups.
Clearbrief raises $1.2M from Sequoia, Madrona and Avvo founder to commercialize AI legal-writing tool
Seattle startup Clearbrief raised $1.2 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Madrona Venture Group and Avvo founder Mark Britton to commercialize AI-powered legal writing software that checks sentences against supporting evidence and integrates with Microsoft Word and the cloud.
Founders’ Co-op’s Chris DeVore skips Auth0 seed due to competing investment, joins 2015 Series A and profits from Okta’s $6.5B acquisition
Seattle VC Chris DeVore of Founders’ Co-op missed Auth0’s 2014 seed because the firm already backed competitor Meldium, which was acquired in 2014 for $15 million; after that exit he joined Auth0’s $6.9M Series A in 2015 and saw the company acquired by Okta for $6.5B. DeVore says avoiding portfolio overlap is key and expresses gratitude to Auth0’s founders for allowing Founders’ Co-op to participate.
Wyze names former Nike exec Francis Lee as first CFO; OutSystems raises $150M at $9.5B valuation as CMO relocates to Seattle
Wyze Labs named longtime Nike executive Francis Lee as its first CFO as the Kirkland smart-home startup expands after a Series A; OutSystems closed a $150M funding round valuing it at $9.5B while moving CMO Robson Grieve to Seattle. Additional regional moves include Lisa Nelson joining Flying Fish Partners as a venture partner and Apptio naming Kevin Meeks chief customer officer.
Kevala raises $4M led by Vulcan Capital to help long-term care facilities fill nursing shifts with staffing and compliance software
Seattle startup Kevala raised $4 million led by Vulcan Capital to provide staffing, compliance and workforce-management software for long-term care facilities, helping them fill nursing shifts via a curated on-call pool and earning revenue from software sales and a cut of supplemental staff wages.
Madrona leads $27M round in Fauna; Bob Muglia named executive chairman, Eric Berg becomes CEO
Madrona Venture Group led a $27 million investment in Fauna, the San Francisco-based database startup founded by two former Twitter engineers, bringing total funding to $57 million and appointing Bob Muglia as executive chairman and Eric Berg as CEO. Fauna focuses on cloud-native, serverless-accessible databases (FaunaDB) and will add Madrona’s S. Somasegar to its board.
