We’re back with an update to the GeekWire 200, our list of the hottest up-and-coming privately-held technology companies in the Pacific Northwest.
This month — sparked by an interesting comment in our story on Madrona Venture Group earlier this week — we’re taking a closer look at the top 25 companies on the list and which Seattle venture capital firms helped spark their growth.
Unsurprisingly, Madrona leads the charge with six portfolio companies in the top 25, including Seattle real estate company Redfin (No. 2); cosmetics retailer Julep (No. 3) and enterprise software company Apptio (No. 9). Madrona’s might in Seattle is well documented with about 40 percent of all venture dollars last year flowing to companies bankrolled by the firm and its syndicate partners.
Despite making multiple bets in Silicon Valley in recent years, Bellevue-based Ignition ranks in second place in terms of backing these Pacific Northwest companies, with three portfolio companies in the top 25 (No. 1 DocuSign, No. 10 Avvo and No. 12 Moz).
Founder’s Co-op — which just this week announced a new $20 million fund — has two startups in the top 25. (No. 7 Tune and No. 15 Simply Measured).
What’s also interesting to note is just how many Pacific Northwest companies have not been backed by local venture capital firms, including Portland upstart Puppet Labs (No. 8); Kirkland traffic analytics company INRIX (No. 11) and fast-growing home improvement startup Porch (No. 5), though Porch does have Seattle area angel investors such as Geoff Entress and others as backers. (For this analysis, we just tracked venture capital firms, not individual angels).
Here’s a look at the top 25 companies on the list, and the Seattle venture capital firms that are backing them:
1. DocuSign (Ignition, Frazier Technology Ventures)
2. Redfin (Madrona)
3. Julep (Maveron, Madrona)
4. Avalara (Benaroya)
5. Porch.com (No Seattle VCs)
6. Act-On Software (Voyager)
7. Tune (Founder’s Co-op)
8. Puppet Labs (No Seattle VCs )
9. Apptio (Madrona)
10. Avvo (Ignition)
11. INRIX (No Seattle VCs)
12. Moz (Ignition, Curious Office)
13. CreativeLive (No Seattle VCs)
14. PayScale (Madrona, Fluke Venture Partners, Montlake)
15. Simply Measured (Founder’s Co-op)
16. Talentwise (No Seattle VCs)
17. Nintex (No Seattle VCs)
18. Blue Origin (Bezos Expeditions)
19. Cyanogen (No Seattle VCs)
20. Geocaching (No Seattle VCs, the 2014 GeekWire “Bootstrapper of the Year” award winner)
21. TheClymb (Oregon Angel Fund)
22. WildTangent (Madrona)
23. Cheezburger (Madrona)
24. Whitepages (No Seattle VCs)
25. AudienceScience (Second Avenue Partners)
You can see all of the activity by visiting the GeekWire 200 list here.
The GeekWire 200 — presented by our partners at EY — is a resource for identifying and tracking privately-held tech companies in the Pacific Northwest. It uses publicly available data — including social media followings, approximate employee counts and inbound web links — to generate a ranking of 200 top companies from our broader list of more than 900 Pacific Northwest tech startups.
It’s not a perfect ranking by any means, but we think it helps provide a better understanding of the startup landscape. It’s also a work in progress, and we are always looking for ways to improve the list.
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.)
Apart from providing a quick survey of the startup landscape in the Pacific Northwest, the GeekWire 200 can be a useful tool for research. In addition to sorting between B2B and B2C companies, you can also sort by more than 20 different sub-categories, from gaming to advertising to education.
Special note for job seekers: We’ve added a new feature to the GeekWire 200, “We’re Hiring” buttons, supplementing our GeekWork jobs site to help connect candidates with employers. Companies interested in this feature can contact advertising@geekwire.com.
