Seattle has become known as one of the nation’s hubs for technology, but the Emerald City isn’t the only region with growing tech companies in the Pacific Northwest.
Powered by new money, startups in Portland and Vancouver, B.C., as well as Seattle, are making big moves. Key new executives, hiring pushes, high-profile partnerships and new headquarters helped a variety of companies move up the GeekWire 200 list of privately-held Pacific Northwest startups this month.
The top five remained static in February with DocuSign at the top, followed by Redfin, Avalara, Blue Origin and Puppet. Bellevue-based project management company Smartsheet was the only company in the top 10 with upward movement, climbing two spots to number eight on the list.
Click for the full February update to the GeekWire 200 and continue reading for highlights.
Seattle startup Apptentive in November raised $3.6 million, helping propel it 11 spots on the list to number 121. At the time, the company, which helps mobile app makers retain customers and boost reviews, said the fresh cash would help grow the its headcount from 30 to 55 over the next year.
Apptentive’s SDK helps clients like Nordstrom, eBay, Zillow, Microsoft, Sonic, Major League Soccer, IHG, Viacom, power in-app surveys and rating/review prompts. The company, which graduated from Techstars Seattle in 2012, has said it powers more than 25 million in-app customers interactions each month.
Whitepages spinout Hiya has been racking up some big wins lately, and that has helped the Seattle startup climb higher on the GeekWire 200, landing at number 136, up 13 spots from last month. Earlier this month the company landed a deal with China-based ZTE to integrate its caller ID and spam detection software directly into the $399 Axon 7 smartphone. That followed the release of an iOS app in September and a deal with Samsung to pre-install Hiya’s software on the Note 7 and other devices, though that feature is only available on unlocked phones for U.S. consumers.
Hiya is entirely on mobile — its popular app was previously called Whitepages Caller ID — and has a worldwide footprint in nearly 200 countries with more than 1.5 billion unique numbers in its global database. The company says it scans 3.5 billion calls and texts per month.
LoginRadius, which helps enterprises manage customer identity and access, moved to downtown Vancouver, B.C. in September from Edmonton, Alberta and climbed 12 spots on the GeekWire 200 list to number 101. The company recently reported 257 percent growth in its platform, which encompasses more than 650 million monthly unique users.
After recently growing its headcount by 110 percent, LoginRadius is promising a slew of new products in 2017.
Portland-based Cozy landed an $8.4 million funding round in August and has since grown rapdily. The property management startup’s LinkedIn employee count sits at 46, a big jump from the 25 people the company said it employed when it raised money last summer. One of the key hires was Brian Ellin, formerly of Twitter and Medium, who the company brought in as vice president of product in January. All these moves helped Cozy rise 17 spots on the list to number 142.
Cozy, which originally launched in San Francisco but relocated its headquarters to Portland in 2013 because it was easier to hire engineers, now manages more than 100,000 properties in 13,000 cities across the U.S.
Here are some of the other big movers on the GeekWire 200 in February:
- Thinkific, up 25 spots to number 125
- PicoBrew, up 14 spots to number 140
- Hubb, up 19 spots to number 171
- Doxo, up 14 spots to number 177
- PayRange, up 10 spots to number 190
Nine startups made their debut on the GeekWire 200 in February. They are: Spaceflight Industries, Stay Alfred, globys, Highspot, resin.io, StudentRND, DefenseStorm, Viar and Manzama.
Some companies jumped more than 20 spots this month, as we some fixed technical issues on the GeekWire 200. Their current spots in the rankings are reflective of where they should have been rather than an actual jump between January and February. They are: Carena, up 26 spots to number 81; Maana, up 29 spots to number 116; and Qorus, up 15 spots to number 123.
The GeekWire 200 — sponsored by our partners at EY — is derived from our broader list of more than 900 Pacific Northwest tech startups. The list is designed to provide a better understanding of the startup landscape in the Northwest. The ranking is generated from publicly available data, including social media followings, approximate employee counts and inbound web links.
To make sure your startup is eligible for inclusion in the GeekWire 200, first make sure it’s included in the broader Startup List. If so, there’s no need to submit it separately for the GeekWire 200. If your Pacific Northwest startup isn’t among the companies on that larger list, you can submit it for inclusion here, and our algorithm will crunch the numbers to see if your company makes next month’s GeekWire 200. (Please, no service providers, marketing agencies, etc.)
Thanks to everyone for checking out this month’s ranking. And, just a reminder, if you value resources like these, be sure to check out our list and map of out-of-town tech companies with Seattle engineering outposts as well as our list of startup incubators, co-working spaces and accelerators in the region, and our GeekWork job board.
