Pacific Northwest tech startup deals: The top 15 funding rounds during Q3

Venture capital funding to Pacific Northwest startups saw signs of positive momentum in Q3.

Privately held tech companies in the region raised more than $2 billion across 44 deals during the quarter, according to GeekWire’s funding tracker.

That’s up from $382 million across 35 deals in the second quarter, and up from $1.02 billion in the year-ago quarter.

A massive $900 million round for Vancouver, B.C.-based legal tech giant Clio in July made up nearly half of total Q3 funding for the entire Pacific Northwest region.

Biotech and healthcare startups — including Kestra Medical Technologies; Borealis Biosciences; and Outpace Bio — raised rounds over $100 million.

Another notable investment: $140 million for cybersecurity firm Chainguard, a new unicorn in the Seattle region.

Carly Kiser, managing director, innovation economy banking at J.P. Morgan, said her team is “hearing increased optimism about fundraising.”

“In Seattle, we are seeing continued momentum particularly from early-stage companies building in critical sectors like AI, cybersecurity, infrastructure and clean tech,” she said. “Of course, we anticipate a slowdown in the back half of Q4 due to the typical end-of-year pause and the U.S. election, but expect it will pick up again in early 2025.”

The overall venture capital market remains tepid, relative to the record highs set in 2021. Total deal value this year is expected to top 2020 levels, but higher interest rates and fewer exits are keeping investors wary, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.

“As liquidity remains elusive, increasingly cautious venture investors have stepped up their standards, opting for quality over quantity as they increase time spent on due diligence and advocate for more investor protections in term sheets,” the report said.

Here’s a look at the top funding rounds for companies based in Seattle and the broader Pacific Northwest during Q3. See the latest deals at our funding tracker.

• Vancouver legal tech company Clio lands $900M at $3B valuation
• Kestra Medical Technologies raises $196M to boost commercialization of wearable defibrillator
• Versant Ventures and Novartis Launch Borealis Biosciences With $150 Million in Funding
• Protein design startup Outpace Bio lands $144M to test treatments that target solid tumors
• A new unicorn in Seattle: Cybersecurity startup Chainguard raises $140M at $1.1B valuation
• LevelTen lands $65M from Microsoft, Google to expand clean energy marketplace services
• Samsung, Salesforce invest in $60M round for Seattle cybersecurity startup Protect AI
• Industrial analytics startup Seeq lands $50M to continue its growth
• Seattle startup Arzeda raises $38M to create proteins for food, pharma, and other industries
• Seattle startup QA Wolf raises $36M to help companies spot bugs in software code
• Ex-Microsoft engineers raise $25M for legal tech startup Supio, which uses AI to help lawyers analyze data
• Microbiome and diagnostics startup Viome lands $25M and hires former Amazon leader as COO
• Data observability startup Revefi raises $20M to fuel new ‘AI data engineer’ product
• Trinity Capital Inc. Provides $20 Million in Growth Capital to Kymeta
• ITpipes raises $20M to help municipalities get a better look at sewer and storm systems