Seattle Climate Innovation Hub
The Seattle Climate Innovation Hub is a downtown home for climate startups, opened in January 2025 by the City of Seattle, UW CoMotion Labs, 9Zero and VertueLab, and the base of CoMotion's Climate Tech Incubator.
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- HQ
- Seattle
- Sectors
- Climate tech, Technology, Investment
- Founded
- 2025
Seattle startup Level raises $1.5M to expand flat-fee, income-contingent credit for independent contractors
Seattle startup Level raised $1.5 million to expand a flexible credit service for independent contractors that charges a single flat fee, uses work history for underwriting, and repays only when users earn.
Techstars Seattle launches 12th cohort virtually, achieves first-ever gender parity among CEOs
Techstars Seattle announced its 12th cohort, which will run largely virtually using lessons from its 2020 remote program and starting a few weeks earlier to improve virtual connection. The 2021 class achieved gender parity among CEOs, and Techstars Seattle says virtual programming has not hurt fundraising and broadened investor interest.
Todd Hooper’s Stealth Startup Aardvark Labs Raises $3.5M, SEC Filing Shows
Seattle entrepreneur Todd Hooper has raised $3.5 million for a stealth startup called Aardvark Labs, according to a new SEC filing that lists Hooper and other Seattle-area tech figures on the company’s leadership. Hooper, founder of Vreal and other startups, declined to provide additional details about the venture.
George “Skip” Battle resigns from Expedia Group board; Vacasa hires Jamie Cohen as CFO; Wyze adds Jennifer Ceran to board
Expedia Group board member George “Skip” Battle resigned after serving since 2005; the departure was not due to any disagreement, the company said. Vacasa named Jamie Cohen as CFO and Wyze Labs added former Smartsheet CFO Jennifer Ceran to its board.
GeekWire survey: Pacific Northwest tech, science and startup leaders optimistic for 2021, cite AI and virtual health as top trends
GeekWire surveyed Pacific Northwest tech, science and startup leaders who are broadly optimistic about 2021, naming AI (especially natural language processing), virtual health, mRNA, gene editing and video conferencing as key technologies while noting uncertainty about long-term effects of remote work and the pandemic.
Two Screens for Teachers raises support as founders seek $23M to supply 250,000 pandemic-strained educators; teen Avi Schiffmann built a widely used COVID-19 tracker
A roundup of positive tech, science, and education stories from 2020 highlights initiatives that helped during the pandemic, including Two Screens for Teachers providing monitors to school districts and a high school student, Avi Schiffmann, building a widely used COVID-19 tracker.
Symbl raises $4.7M led by Crosscut Ventures with Amazon Alexa Fund to expand conversational AI for enterprise
Seattle startup Symbl raised $4.7 million in a round led by Crosscut Ventures with participation from Amazon’s Alexa Fund and several other investors to expand its conversational AI API that transcribes real-time conversations and extracts insights for meetings, customer care, and sales. Founded in 2018 by Surbhi Rathore and Toshish Jawale, the 30-person company says pandemic-driven digital communication growth has increased demand for its services.
Jasper Kuria launches Black Owned Business as Northwest employers form coalition to back Black-owned firms amid COVID losses
Jasper Kuria launched Black Owned Business, a Seattle-area platform connecting nearly 80 Black-owned professional-service vendors with companies, and is partnering with SurveyMonkey to get firms like Intuit, Zoom and Slack to consider Black-owned vendors. Nearly 60 Northwest employers — including Microsoft, Boeing, Expedia, Nintendo, Zillow, Vulcan, PATH and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — formed Washington Employers for Racial Equity and released data showing Black-owned businesses have been disproportionately harmed by COVID-19.
Shotcall, a Techstars Seattle grad, raises $2.2M seed to grow esports streamer–fan event marketplace
Shotcall, a 2018-founded esports fan engagement platform and Techstars Seattle graduate, raised $2.2 million in a seed round to expand its marketplace linking streamers with fans for events and paid interactions.
Olive raises $1M seed from Active Capital to accelerate IT procurement platform, aims to cut buying to under eight weeks
Vancouver startup Olive raised a $1 million seed round led by Active Capital to expand its IT procurement platform that shortens enterprise software buying from months or years to under eight weeks. The Techstars Seattle graduate, founded by CEO Chris Heard and CTO Dan Harrison, has five employees and saw accelerated demand as companies seek cost-effective procurement solutions amid the pandemic.
Seattle fintech Level to extend over $1 million in flexible cash advances to gig workers this year, CEO David Edelstein says
Seattle fintech startup Level partners with gig-economy marketplaces to offer flexible credit advances to independent contractors, and expects to extend over $1 million in cash advances by year-end as demand rises during the pandemic.
Neu co-founders Kwame Boler and Claudius Mbemba pivot cleaning marketplace after bookings fall below 10% amid early 2020 COVID travel collapse
Seattle startup Neu, which connects Airbnb hosts with hotel-grade cleaners, saw bookings collapse to under 10% during the early COVID-19 travel shutdown but pivoted to pursue on-demand cleaning for businesses, residential and commercial real estate. Co-founders Kwame Boler and Claudius Mbemba accelerated plans to expand beyond vacation rentals and reassessed operations for a post-COVID market.
Mixer co-founder Matt Salsamendi says Microsoft was right to close Mixer and partner with Facebook Gaming
Matt Salsamendi, who co-founded Beam Interactive (later acquired by Microsoft and rebranded as Mixer) as a teenager, reflects on Microsoft’s decision to shut down Mixer and partner with Facebook Gaming, saying he understands the competitive and investment reasons but empathizes with affected streamers. Now 22, he remains in contact with former team members and describes mixed feelings about the outcome while calling it a relatively good result given the alternatives.
Chef reports cash-flow positive quarter, over 100% incremental recurring revenue growth and eyes first profitable year since 2008
Chef CEO Barry Crist said the software automation firm saw surging demand during the pandemic, with nearly 4,000 registered attendees for its virtual ChefConf and its strongest quarter ever, achieving cash-flow positivity and over 100% growth in incremental recurring revenue. The privately held Seattle company, with about 300 employees, is on track for its first full year of profitability since 2008 and launched Chef Desktop, which secured two significant pre-launch deals.
Founders’ Co-op publishes customer experience promise to founders outlining five commitments after 200+ early-stage investments
Founders’ Co-op outlines a written customer experience promise to founders, committing to five principles—Tell the Truth, Be Fast, Give First, It’s Your Company, Be Human—based on the partners’ founder-to-VC experience and more than 200 early-stage investments.
Techstars Seattle’s 2020 cohort shifts programming online, prepares for virtual Demo Day May 6 as startups pivot amid COVID-19
Techstars Seattle's 11th accelerator cohort of 10 startups began in February and has adapted to COVID-19 by moving in-person programming online, pivoting business models, and accelerating product development where needed ahead of a virtual Demo Day on May 6, 2020.
Remitly reports 100% customer growth and 40% transaction-volume increase from Feb–Mar as COVID-19 drives digital remittances
Seattle remittance startup Remitly experienced rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, with customer numbers up 100% and transaction volume up 40% from February to March, as users shifted to digital transfers while physical providers closed. CEO Matt Oppenheimer said the crisis accelerated the company’s mission to provide safe, mobile cross-border payments for immigrants supporting families abroad.
Polly launches real-time trivia, polls and employee-award 'games' for Slack to boost remote-team morale
Seattle startup Polly launched a suite of real-time 'games' for Slack—including trivia, quick 'hot take' polls, and quirky employee awards—to help remote teams boost morale and social connection during the COVID-19–driven shift to working from home. The features are designed to be live, time-limited interactions that reveal results in Slack threads and complement Polly’s existing surveys, polls, analytics, and meeting tools.
OctoML raises $15M from Amplify and Madrona to scale TVM-based ML deployment tools
Seattle startup OctoML, spun out of the University of Washington and led by Apache TVM creators, raised $15 million from investors including Amplify and Madrona to expand its ML deployment software. The company, which launched a TVM-based SaaS called Octomizer, will use the funding to grow hiring and scale its optimizer for edge and cloud model deployment.
Seattle Impact Hall (formerly Impact Hub Seattle) shuts down, laying off seven employees amid COVID-19 and competitive pressures
Seattle Impact Hall (formerly Impact Hub Seattle), a Pioneer Square co-working space founded in 2011, is shutting down after financial struggles worsened by increased local competition, rising costs and the COVID-19 outbreak. The closure will lay off seven employees and the space is offering tenants discounts at nearby co-working providers.
GeekWire 200 CEOs and execs from Accolade, PayScale, DreamBox, Auth0, Moz and others share COVID-19 leadership advice
GeekWire interviewed leaders from top Pacific Northwest startups on the GeekWire 200 about how they’re responding to the COVID-19 crisis, sharing actions taken, leadership principles, and cautious optimism. The piece presents company-by-company perspectives from executives at firms such as Accolade, PayScale, DreamBox Learning, Auth0, Moz, Act-On, Remitly, Puppet, DefinedCrowd, and Icertis.
Chris DeVore to Step Down as Techstars Seattle Managing Director on July 1 to Focus on Founders’ Co-op VC Firm
Chris DeVore is stepping down as managing director of Techstars Seattle on July 1 after nearly five years to focus on running Founders’ Co-op, which recently raised a $25 million fund. He will remain involved with Techstars and continue working from the University of Washington’s Startup Hall.
Techstars Seattle announces 2018 class with improved diversity: 3 women CEOs, 2 African American CEOs in 10-company cohort
Techstars Seattle reports a more diverse 2018 class after targeted outreach: three women CEOs and two African American CEOs among 10 companies, plus founders from Jordan, Iran and Pakistan, though Latinx representation remains absent and women are still underrepresented.
Author argues regional VCs must map startups to the venture-capital 'stack' to connect local companies with San Francisco/New York growth capital
The author connects the concept of the venture capital valuation stack with how institutional LPs view regionally focused managers, arguing that regional innovation hubs can succeed only if they understand how to connect local startups to centralized global capital markets concentrated in places like San Francisco and New York.
VICIS Raises $8M Series Seed to Commercialize ZERO1 Football Helmet
VICIS, a private company focused on improved football helmets, closed an $8 million Series Seed funding round on January 20, 2016, to commercialize its ZERO1 Football Helmet.
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Mukund Venkatakrishnan Co-founder, Co-founder and CEO
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Nathan Benedict Co-founder
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Steve Nyman Co-founder
