Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is mentioned in articles about the Seismic CEO on the Highspot merger and about Huawei suing T-Mobile for patent infringement.
Temporal rises to No. 1 on GeekWire 200 after $550M raise at $12.55B valuation as AI and hardware firms climb
Temporal is now the No. 1 company on the GeekWire 200 after a $550 million raise valuing it at $12.55 billion and surpassing $250 million in annualized revenue; the Fall 2026 ranking highlights growth in AI software and advanced machinery for space, energy and defense across the Pacific Northwest.
AI House hosts Demo Day in Seattle with 25 startups pitching to investors flown in from Boston, New York, Colorado and the Bay Area
AI House hosted a demo day in Seattle where 25 early-stage startups—many outside the incubator’s portfolio—pitched to investors flown in from Boston, New York, Colorado, the Bay Area and other cities to increase outside capital for local founders. Organizers aimed to showcase diverse Seattle startups, from revenue-generating companies to ambitious technologists, and attracted both national and local venture investors.
Augmeta, founded by former Opendoor and Amazon leaders, raises $3M seed to deploy AI agents for each KPI
Augmeta, founded in 2025 by former Opendoor and Amazon leaders Salman Jamali, Nitin Bhaskaran and Arslan Jamali, assigns AI "operator" agents to monitor and investigate individual business metrics around the clock. The Redmond startup raised $3 million in seed funding led by Depth Ventures to accelerate customer deployments and expand agent capabilities, with Tractor Supply as an anchor customer.
Truveta CEO Terry Myerson to Retire in September; Co-founders Jay Nanduri and Ryan Ahern Named Interim Co-CEOs
Terry Myerson, co-founder and CEO of Truveta, will retire at the end of September and become an advisor, while co-founders Jay Nanduri and Ryan Ahern will serve as interim co-CEOs as the board searches for a permanent replacement; Truveta has grown to about 500 employees, a valuation above $1 billion, and aggregates de-identified records from 30 U.S. health systems for customers including drug makers and researchers.
Neuramill founders Nistha Mitra and Nick Khormaei build software to capture retiring machinists' know‑how; win six‑figure defense contract
Neuramill, founded last year by Seattle-born engineers Nistha Mitra and Nick Khormaei, is building software that captures veteran machinists' tacit knowledge to generate manufacturing plans for aerospace and defense shops. The startup has early traction including a six-figure contract with an unnamed prime defense contractor and pilot users such as Diamond Machine Works, VTN Manufacturing and Astranis.
Raiders RB Ashton Jeanty invests in Nukleus and becomes public face of athlete advisory platform
Nukleus, a startup creating a shared operating system for athletes and their advisors, has signed Las Vegas Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty as an investor and public spokesperson. The Issaquah-based company’s backers also include Microsoft finance EVP Mat McBride, WaFd Bank CEO Brent Beardall, former Vulcan Capital investor Skyler Nelson, and Dr. Brett Kindle, and it operates with a core team of 12 plus engineering support in India.
Independent report: Seattle’s JumpStart payroll tax penalizes senior hires and concentrates revenue in 10 largely tech firms, risking $50M loss if one large employer shifts 10,000 workers
An independent 127-page City of Seattle-commissioned study finds the city’s tax structure, notably the JumpStart payroll tax, disproportionately penalizes hiring senior high‑pay workers and concentrates revenue risk in a few large tech employers. Researchers warn that reliance on a small number of firms—10 companies account for three-quarters of the payroll tax on large employers—exposes Seattle to significant fiscal vulnerability if large employers relocate or stock‑based compensation fluctuates.
EIT Pharma, led by ex-Athira CEO Leen Kawas, raises $35M Series A to advance lonafarnib for chronic hepatitis D
Kirkland-based EIT Pharma, led by former Athira CEO Leen Kawas, raised $35 million in an oversubscribed Series A led by Propel Bio Partners to support FDA review, manufacturing and commercial preparations for lonafarnib as an oral treatment candidate for chronic hepatitis D. The FDA accepted EIT Pharma's New Drug Application for lonafarnib on Aug. 11; the drug was acquired from Eiger BioPharmaceuticals' 2024 bankruptcy sale.
Marc Whitten, ex-Microsoft Xbox exec, named president and CEO of Dolby Laboratories as Kevin Yeaman retires
Marc Whitten, a veteran of Microsoft, Sonos, Amazon, Unity, Cruise and Meta, was named president and CEO of Dolby Laboratories, succeeding longtime leader Kevin Yeaman. Fred Hutch announced leadership changes naming Dr. Lawrence Fong as senior VP and director of Translational Science and Dr. Andrew Hsieh as the inaugural endowed chair, and Microsoft AI saw executive departures including CMO Andréa Mallard.
Pro.com co-founders Subramanian, Williams and ex-BofA CIO Zachary Harl launch OnTrade, an AI startup for wealth managers backed by General Catalyst and Madrona
Pro.com co-founders Rajalakshmi “Raji” Subramanian and Matt Williams, with Zachary Harl, launched OnTrade, an AI startup for wealth management that has been building in stealth since 2024 and is backed by General Catalyst, Madrona and angels to deploy AI agents that automate advisors' analytical tasks while keeping human approval.
Amazon to acquire DuckLabs; DuckDB creators join AWS while DuckDB stays open-source under a foundation
Amazon will acquire DuckLabs, the Amsterdam team behind the open-source DuckDB database, with DuckDB remaining free under the DuckDB Foundation while DuckLabs employees (including co‑founders Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt) join AWS. Financial terms were not disclosed; Amazon expects the deal to close shortly and DuckLabs to become part of AWS in early September as Amazon pushes to make S3 a hub for direct data analysis.
Ex-Microsoft/Boeing Consultant Genevieve Priebe Launches Reroot to Connect Consumers with 50,000+ Local Producers
Genevieve Priebe left a two-decade tech consulting career to run her family farm and founded bootstrapped Seattle startup Reroot to help make local food more accessible through a marketplace, a mapping app of 50,000+ producers, and a patent-pending voice tool for farmers.
Lev names startup veteran Jay Bartot as CTO to build its ‘AI co-founder’ and productize PSL playbook
Lev, a Pioneer Square Labs spinout building an 'AI co-founder' for entrepreneurs, named veteran startup builder Jay Bartot as CTO to help productize the venture-studio playbook and launched Lev Learn, a free guide to startup terminology.
Wild Zebra raises $6M seed led by Trilogy to scale Socratic AI tutor for grades 2–9, total funding $8M
Seattle edtech startup Wild Zebra raised $6 million in an oversubscribed seed round to expand its AI math and reading tutor that uses a Socratic, interest-grounded approach for students in grades 2–9 and now reaches tens of thousands of users. The company will hire engineers and expand sales and marketing, and the round was led by Trilogy Equity Partners, bringing total funding to $8 million.
GeekWire Podcast: Seattle startup funding falls 40% in H1 2026 as AI redirects venture capital; Kalshi court setback and Impinj marks decade on Nasdaq
The GeekWire Podcast reports Seattle startup funding fell about 40% in H1 2026 as AI redirected venture capital, plus coverage of a Seattle judge rejecting Kalshi's federal defense, Impinj's 10th year on the Nasdaq after 26 years of growth, and nearly 40 locals trying a five-week smartphone detox.
Impinj CEO Chris Diorio rings Nasdaq bell as RFID chipmaker marks 10th IPO anniversary after growing to $4.2B market cap
Impinj, maker of tiny battery-free RFID chips embedded in over 160 billion items, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its IPO as CEO Chris Diorio rang the Nasdaq bell; the Seattle company commands about two-thirds of its market, grew from a $250 million IPO valuation to a $4.2 billion market cap, but has reported only one profitable year and carries a $400 million accumulated deficit.
Clarify acquires Seam AI to power Clarify Signals, adds five employees including Seam CEO Nicholas Scavone
Seattle AI startup Clarify, which has raised $22.5 million, acquired San Francisco-based Seam AI to integrate its proprietary web monitoring signals into a new product, Clarify Signals, launching later this year; five Seam employees including CEO Nicholas Scavone will join Clarify. Financial terms were not disclosed, though Clarify said it raised additional undisclosed funding as part of the deal.
logcat.ai raises $2.55M pre-seed to build AI agents that debug Android and Linux device OSes
Seattle startup logcat.ai raised $2.55 million in pre-seed funding to build AI agents that debug and develop low-level Android and Linux operating-system software for devices. Founded by former Esper engineers Varun Chitre (CEO) and Tarun Vashisth (CTO), the system analyzes device logs to find root causes and recommend fixes, with a roadmap to autonomously write and test fixes.
Apptio Co-founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer Launch Thira, Raise $21M Seed Led by Madrona to Build Autonomous IT Support Agents
Apptio co-founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer launched Bellevue-based enterprise AI startup Thira to build autonomous agents for IT support and back-office work, and raised $21 million in seed funding led by Madrona. Thira will integrate with tools like ServiceNow, Jira Service Management and identity/device-management systems, with plans to expand into finance and HR amid competition from companies such as ServiceNow (Moveworks), Aisera, Rezolve.ai, and Serval.
Motorola Solutions Leads $125M Round for Brinc to Expand 911 Drone Manufacturing and HQ
Seattle-based emergency-response drone maker Brinc raised $125 million in a round led by Motorola Solutions to expand manufacturing, bring new products to market, and move into a larger Seattle headquarters and factory later this year. The funding comes amid U.S. restrictions on Chinese-made drones; Brinc’s valuation has nearly doubled from $480 million a year ago, bringing total funding to over $280 million.
Seattle Startups Raise $2.7B in H1 2026 — Down 40% Year‑Over‑Year While U.S. VC Hits Record $412.7B
Seattle-area startups raised $2.7 billion across 163 deals in H1 2026, a roughly 40% drop from $4.5 billion a year earlier, as national venture funding surged to a record $412.7 billion driven largely by AI mega-rounds that Seattle’s pure-play AI companies did not capture.
Vinod Khosla-led Family Agrees to Buy Seattle Seahawks for Reported $9.6 Billion
Veteran venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and his family agreed to buy the Seattle Seahawks from the Paul Allen estate for a reported $9.6 billion; Khosla is a longtime Silicon Valley investor who founded Khosla Ventures and was an early OpenAI backer.
GeekWire Founder Open House Spotlights Microsoft’s 4,800-Job Cuts, Xbox Overhaul and Hardware Surge on GeekWire 200
GeekWire’s founder open house covers Microsoft’s latest layoffs and Xbox overhaul, the rise of hardware companies on the GeekWire 200, and discussions with founders about how AI is reshaping product development and company operations.
Auger, led by ex‑Amazon operations chief Dave Clark, raises $50M Series B to reach $150M total and expand customers
Auger, a Bellevue supply-chain software startup led by ex‑Amazon operations chief Dave Clark, raised $50 million in a Series B led by Eclipse, bringing total funding to $150 million while growing to ~130 employees and signing customers including Meta, Fanatics, and Kimberly‑Clark. The company integrates existing ERP and logistics systems into a unified operating layer using AI agents and optimization models to make and execute supply‑chain decisions.
Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s Entire launches distributed Git network preview after $60M seed
Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s startup Entire launched a preview of a distributed Git network that mirrors repositories across active regions in the U.S., Europe, and Australia to reduce latency, rate limits, and outages from AI coding agents. Entire raised a $60 million seed round in February and lets developers mirror GitHub repos in one step while keeping code on the original platform.
