GeekWire 200 update: A new No. 1 rises to the top of our startup rankings

There’s a new name atop the GeekWire 200.

Seattle-based sales enablement company Highspot has taken the No. 1 spot on our ranking of privately held technology companies in Seattle and the rest of the Pacific Northwest.

Outreach (No. 7), another Seattle sales software startup, previously held the No. 1 slot, but the company has been trimming its workforce, including a 9% layoff earlier this month. Its longtime CEO also recently stepped down.

That opened up opportunity for Highspot, which raised $250 million in 2022 and is growing headcount again after laying off staff last year. Highspot was included in a recent Forrester Research report analyzing top revenue enablement platforms.

The GeekWire 200, presented by JPMorganChase, provides a snapshot of the region’s robust startup landscape and highlights companies that are gaining traction.

The top-ranked companies have changed quite a bit over the years, reflecting the dynamic nature of the fast-moving tech industry.

Some startups fall down the list due to workforce reductions. Companies that shut down are removed from the list.

Previous top-ranked startups such as Blue Origin, Hootsuite, and Icertis no longer qualify for the GeekWire 200, because companies founded 15 years ago and beyond are not included, given that they are no longer “startups” based on our parameters.

Meanwhile, startups that have raised cash and are adding staff move up the rankings, reflecting their prominence among the region’s plethora of early stage tech companies.

The GeekWire 200 ranking is grounded in both publicly available data — including LinkedIn employee counts, Facebook followers, and Moz domain authority — as well as editorial judgment from the GeekWire news team, based on factors including recent fundings and layoffs, and our own insights from covering the region’s technology startups.

Read on for more takeaways from the latest update.

Three companies moved into the top 10:

• Agility Robotics (No. 5), the Oregon-based startup developing humanoid robots, announced an investment from German manufacturing giant Schaeffler Group.
• Chainguard (No. 6), a Kirkland, Wash.-based cybersecurity startup, raised $140 million in July and is growing headcount.
• Helion (No. 9), an Everett, Wash.-based fusion company, is backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and has a deal with Microsoft. Reports emerged this summer about OpenAI’s interest in buying power from Helion. 

Other notable movement up the list:

• Rec Room (No. 12) rose 44 spots as the startup recently launched its popular game on the Nintendo Switch.
• Statsig (No. 15) jumped 40 spots and just announced a partnership with Microsoft’s Azure for AI app experimentation.
• Zap Energy (No. 19), another fusion company based in Everett, surged 65 spots after confirming a $130 million investment round.

A majority of the companies on the list focus on software, a key strength of the Seattle tech ecosystem. But there are also a number of hardware startups.

• Carbon Robotics (No. 17) moved up after a raising $70 million round for its AI robots that blast weeds with lasers.
• Kymeta (No. 32), the flat-panel satellite antenna company, raised $20 million in September and launched a new product.
• Brinc (No. 35) unveiled a new public safety drone designed to fly ahead of police in response to 911 calls to quickly assess situations, and announced a partnership with another Seattle-area hardware company, Echodyne (No. 83).
• Mason (No. 42), which helps companies manage device fleets, announced two longtime tech leaders as its new CEO and CTO.
• Stoke Space (No. 45) jumped 22 spots on the heels of a successful test for its reusable rockets and increased headcount.
• Picnic (No. 87) announced fresh funding to grow its pizza-making robot system.

A handful of startups joined the GeekWire 200 for the first time:

• Auger (No. 196), a new logistics startup led by former Amazon and Flexport chief Dave Clark, came out of stealth mode in October and revealed a $100 million Series A investment round.
• Loti (No. 183), which helps public figures spot and remove deepfakes, raised funding from Khosla Ventures, Bling Capital, and FUSE.
• Levanta (No. 176) announced a fresh $20 million round this week to boost its marketplace that connects Amazon sellers with internet influencers.
• Supio (No. 182) raised $25 million in August for its legal tech software that uses AI to help lawyers analyze data.
• Factal (No. 172), which helps alert corporate clients to global events that could pose risk to their operations, announced a partnership this week with International SOS.

See the full GeekWire 200 ranking for Q4 2024.

To make sure your Pacific Northwest technology startup is eligible for the GeekWire 200, first confirm it’s included in the broader GeekWire Startup List. If so, there’s no need to submit it separately. If your startup isn’t among the companies on that larger list, you can submit it for inclusion here, and we’ll crunch the numbers to see if your company makes the next GeekWire 200 update.

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