Startup fundraising activity didn’t budge much in the first quarter of 2024 across the U.S. as the venture capital slowdown continued into the new year.
Quarterly deal value hit the lowest level since 2018, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor released Thursday.
Higher interest rates and persistent inflation, among other market factors, caused venture capitalists to put the brakes on investing throughout 2023, following record levels of startup fundraising in years prior.
“The venture capital business cycle effectively reset in recent years, and as of early 2024, it still appears to be searching for its level,” NVCA CEO Bobby Franklin wrote in a report.
Funding to tech startups based in Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest in Q1 fell by 30% from the fourth quarter of 2023, and was up slightly year-over-year to more than $433 million in total, according to GeekWire’s funding list.
Many startups are grappling with the shifting fundraising environment.
“Investor expectations and benchmarks have increased for deals, leading to fundamentally strong companies attracting investment, while those unable to achieve the growth and profitability characteristics expected by today’s VCs are struggling to find capital,” PitchBook CEO John Gabbert said in a statement.
But some companies are still raising sizable rounds. We’ve listed the top funding rounds for startups based in the Pacific Northwest below, pulled from our funding list.
ProfoundBio | $112 million
The Seattle-based biotech firm developing drugs to treat ovarian and endometrial cancers raised cash in February. Two months later, it announced a sale to Danish drugmaker Genmab in a $1.8 billion deal.
EigenLayer | $100 million
The “restaking” company behind the EigenLayer project is one of the hottest early stage blockchain startups. Led by founder Sreeram Kannan, a former professor at the University of Washington who led the UW’s Blockchain Lab, EigenLayer raised the round in February from Andreessen Horowitz.
Pandion | $41.5 million
Founded in 2020 by former Amazon and Walmart executive Scott Ruffin, the Seattle e-commerce startup operates a residential parcel delivery system that covers 80% of U.S. homes and includes five sortation centers. The investment, announced in March, will help Pandion open more sortation centers and expand its geographic reach.
Oleria | $33 million
The Seattle startup emerged from stealth mode last year with software designed to help companies prevent and respond to breaches in an ever-changing cybersecurity landscape. Oleria is led by CEO Jim Alkove, a former chief trust officer at Salesforce.
Interlune | $18 million
The space startup company announced the funding last month when it officially lifted the curtain on its plans to build a robotic harvester that could extract helium-3 from moon dirt and send it back to Earth for applications ranging from quantum computing to fusion power. Interline was co-founded by Rob Meyerson, former president of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture.
Betadapp | $17 million
The Vancouver, B.C.-based company is developing fraud detection technology for the music industry. It raised the fresh capital in January. Betadapp is led by co-CEOs Andrew Batey, founder of digital marketing firm Hipster Riot, and Morgan Hayduk, a former marketing manager at ZipRecruiter.
Recurrent | $16 million
The Seattle-based startup has established itself as a leader in used EV battery analytics and provides scores for battery health on consumer sites including Edmunds.com and Cars.com. Recurrent announced the funding in January. CEO Scott Case was a former exec at EnergySavvy.
Avante | $10 million
This stealthy Seattle startup announced its seed round in January. The company’s tagline is “empowering a healthier workforce and a healthier bottom line.” Avante CEO Rohan D’Souza is a former chief product officer for healthcare automation company Olive AI.
Symbiosys | $9 million
The two-year-old advertising tech startup is helping retailers sell off-site ads that promote products from brands, that show up in places such as Google search or Instagram. It raised the Series A round in January. CEO and founder Bashar Kachachi is a former advertising leader at Google who also spent more than a decade at Microsoft.
Digs | $7 million
The 2-year-old company, which announced the round in January, sells a collaboration platform for builders and homeowners that organizes documents, provides communication tools, and generates 3D digital versions of homes, among other features. Digs CEO Ryan Fink previously founded an augmented reality glasses startup called ONtheGo Platforms.
Editor’s note: Seattle-based cybersecurity company ExtraHop raised $100 million in January, but we did not include it in this startup-focused analysis, given that the company was founded 17 years ago and was acquired in a private equity deal in 2021.
