Kurt Schlosser
Kurt Schlosser is a photographer and reporter associated with GeekWire and Recompose, mentioned in multiple GeekWire articles.
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.
Brad Evans launches Contrib to auction athlete memorabilia online and boost charity fundraising
Former Seattle Sounders defender Brad Evans has launched Contrib, a digital fundraising startup that auctions athlete memorabilia and leverages social media and game-time hype to raise more money for charities than traditional in-person donations. Evans says building the tech company has been a steep learning curve and is giving him new, sometimes sleepless, challenges compared with his 12-year pro soccer career.
Factal raises $3.3M Series A after doubling 2020 revenue to expand AI-and-journalist breaking-news alerts for corporate risk
Seattle startup Factal, which uses AI and journalists to monitor and verify breaking-news threats for corporate clients, raised $3.3 million in a Series A after doubling revenue in 2020. Its tools provide verification, proximity mapping, customized alerts and real-time collaboration for functions like security, risk intelligence and supply-chain continuity.
TerraClear Raises $25M to Advance AI-Powered Rock-Picking Farm Technology with Fully Autonomous Version in Development
TerraClear, an ag tech startup founded by Brent Frei, has raised $25 million to advance its AI-powered rock-picking technology that helps farmers clear rocks from their fields efficiently. The company’s robotic Rock Picker can handle rocks up to 300 pounds, working with minimal soil disturbance, and is currently on its 14th prototype.
GeekWire names winners at 2021 Awards; SeekOut wins Startup of the Year after $65M raise
The 2021 GeekWire Awards returned as a virtual event honoring over 60 finalists across 14 categories from the Pacific Northwest tech community, featuring celebrity cameos and performances. Winners included SeekOut as Startup of the Year, and among 16 winners eight were women and five were people of color and/or immigrant entrepreneurs.
DevHub acquires Brickwork to add online-to-store booking and RSVP features for multi-location brands
Seattle SaaS company DevHub has acquired New York-based retail tech startup Brickwork to add local online-to-store features like appointment booking and event RSVPs, strengthening its Data Experience Platform for multi-location brands; terms were not disclosed.
Picnic raises $16.3M Series A to scale pizza-making robot as pandemic fuels demand for food automation
Seattle food-automation startup Picnic raised $16.3 million in Series A financing to scale its Picnic Pizza System, a pizza-assembly device that enables a single employee to produce up to 100 customized 12-inch pizzas per hour. The company says pandemic-driven demand for delivery, carry-out and high-volume food prep has accelerated interest in automation and it recently redesigned the system with improved interface, safety and food-handling features.
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.
Charna Parkey, PhD and former Textio applied scientist, joins Seattle startup Kaskada as data science lead
Charna Parkey, a PhD in signal processing and former Textio applied scientist, is now data science lead at Seattle startup Kaskada, where she focuses on building product-centric tools to help data scientists and data engineers collaborate on enterprise ML applications.
Bean Box raises $2.4M Series A as pandemic drives specialty coffee demand to homes, CEO says growth near 200%
Seattle startup Bean Box raised $2.4 million in a Series A round as pandemic-driven home coffee demand sharply increased; the 2014-founded company reports ~200% year-over-year growth, over 40% gross margin, doubled subscribers, and expansion beyond the Pacific Northwest.
UW spinout Jeeva unveils Parsair chip claiming 100× lower power than Bluetooth for decades‑long sensor streaming
Jeeva, a Seattle startup spun out of the University of Washington, introduced the Parsair chip, which it says is the world’s lowest-power wireless chip for streaming real-time sensor data and consumes 100× less power than typical Bluetooth. The chip reflects nearby radio signals to communicate—enabling decades-long battery life—and is being pilot-tested with undisclosed global brands for supply chain, asset tracking, and product monitoring use cases.
RealSelf acquires YNS Group (Multiestetica) to expand into Europe and Latin America, targeting 100M annual users
Seattle-based RealSelf has acquired YNS Group, owner of Multiestetica, expanding its cosmetic treatment marketplace into Europe and Latin America and boosting reach to an expected 100 million annual consumers while planning to add 150 employees.
Seattle gallerist Kirsten Anderson and tech veteran Art Min launch Phosphene, a curated NFT portal for vetted artists and collectors
Seattle gallery owner Kirsten Anderson is launching Phosphene, a curated NFT portal, partnering with tech veteran and investor Art Min to connect vetted artists with serious collectors and simplify entry into NFTs.
Modica converts shipping containers into software-driven microfactories to deploy automated factories globally
Seattle startup Modica converts shipping containers into modular, software-driven microfactories that enable small-to-medium scale automated manufacturing anywhere in the world. Founded in 2018 by Will (William) Gibbs, the company applies systems integration, modular construction and generative design to speed factory build-out and avoid supply shortages.
Seattle’s Minnow raises $3M seed to scale IoT contactless Pickup Pods; first M8 batch sold out
Seattle startup Minnow raised $3 million in seed funding for its IoT-enabled, contactless Pickup Pods that use smartphone QR codes to secure individually locked food cubbies for apartments, offices and campuses; the company has installations in the U.S. and Japan and has sold out its first commercial batch (M8).
GeekWire opens voting for 2021 Startup CEO of the Year with five finalists including OctoML, Syndio and WhyLabs
GeekWire is running community voting for its 13th annual GeekWire Awards, featuring five finalists for Startup CEO of the Year: Luis Ceze (OctoML), Maria Colacurcio (Syndio), Mike McSherry (Xealth), Ray Meiring (Qorus Software) and Alessya Visnjic (WhyLabs); voting closes April 30 and winners are announced May 20 at a virtual event.
Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Expeditions joins Drake, Alexis Ohanian and NBA stars in $80M investment in Overtime as it launches paid high-school basketball league
Jeff Bezos joined an $80 million funding round for Overtime, a Brooklyn-based sports media company planning a paid high-school basketball league, alongside investors including Drake, Alexis Ohanian and current and former NBA players.
GeekWire Names Five Finalists for 2021 Innovation of the Year; Winners Announced May 20
GeekWire named five finalists for its 2021 Innovation of the Year award, highlighting Seattle-area breakthroughs from battery materials and vaccine tech to clean-energy purchasing, insect-tracking devices, and cloud-management tools. Community voting runs through April 30 and winners will be announced May 20 at the virtual GeekWire Awards presented by Wave Business.
Wyze Labs starts preorders for $29.99 AI-enabled Wyze Floor Lamp as startup reveals rapid product growth
Seattle-based Wyze Labs began preorders for a $29.99 Wyze Floor Lamp with an AI-learning Bluetooth remote and has launched 17 products in the past year as part of 30 total products. The four-year-old startup employs about 160 people, has over 5 million community users, and has raised $36 million to date including a $15 million round in July 2020 with investment from Marcy Venture Partners.
Libsyn Acquires Seattle Podcast Monetization Startup Glow for $1.2M; Integrates Subscription Billing for 75,000+ Shows
Seattle startup Glow, spun out of Pioneer Square Labs and founded by Amira Valliani, built podcast subscription tools and has been acquired by podcast host Libsyn; Libsyn will integrate Glow’s private feed distribution and subscription billing for its 75,000+ podcasts. Glow had raised $2.3 million, and an SEC filing shows Libsyn agreed to pay $1.2 million ($800k upfront, up to $400k earnout); other deal terms were not disclosed.
Dendron raises $2M seed to scale IDE-style open-source note tool, founded by ex-AWS engineers Kevin Lin and Kiran Pathakota
Seattle-based open-source note-taking startup Dendron raised $2 million in seed funding to scale a tool that applies IDE-style structure to managing large personal and institutional information, founded by ex-AWS engineer Kevin Lin and former Amazon TPM Kiran Pathakota.
Tagboard signs four-year deal with Major League Baseball to power real-time social and interactive fan experiences
Redmond startup Tagboard signed a four-year deal with Major League Baseball to provide its cloud-based Tagboard Interactive platform for real-time social media content and interactive experiences across in-stadium, livestream and digital channels.
Advocat Technologies wins $200,000 top prize at San Diego Angel Conference for AI legal-drafting platform
Seattle-area legal tech startup Advocat Technologies won the $200,000 top prize at the San Diego Angel Conference for its AI system that automates intake and drafting for enterprise legal departments, saving in-house attorneys significant time. The Bellevue company, led by CEO Pradnya Desh, was previously bootstrapped, has raised an additional $800,000, and participated in several accelerator programs.
Rec Room raises $100M, becomes $1.25B Seattle unicorn after pandemic-fueled 566% revenue surge
Seattle-based social gaming startup Rec Room raised $100 million at a $1.25 billion valuation after explosive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by 15 million lifetime users and a 566% year-over-year revenue increase. The five-year-old company offers cross-platform tools for creating virtual rooms and games, has over 2 million creators, isn’t yet profitable, and plans an Android launch later this year.
5G Open Innovation Lab Names 15 Startups in Spring 2021 Cohort Backed by T-Mobile, Microsoft and NASA
The 5G Open Innovation Lab in Bellevue, Wash. selected 15 startups for its Spring 2021 cohort to help entrepreneurs leverage 5G, backed by partners including T-Mobile, Microsoft and NASA. The companies span markets such as automation, cybersecurity, fleet management, autonomous farming, logistics and healthcare.
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