As the year comes to a close, the GeekWire 200 list of the top Pacific Northwest startups shows no signs of slowing down for the holidays.
In this, the penultimate update to the GeekWire 200 for 2017, 15 startups rose at least 10 spots and a few others made their debut or re-entrance on the list. In the spotlight this month are companies that completed some of their biggest deals to date and others embarking on interesting new partnerships.
The top 10 remained static this month. Digital signature company DocuSign retained the top spot this month, followed by tax automation tech company Avalara, space exploration venture Blue Origin, work management technology company Smartsheet and software automation company Puppet. There was some movement within the top 20, which we’ll get to in a minute.
Click for the full November update to the GeekWire 200 and continue reading for highlights and an explanation of the GeekWire 200 methodology.
Remitly, the startup that simplifies sending money around the globe, jumped into the top 20 this month after announcing plans for a massive funding round. The startup said last month that it had agreed to raise up to $115 million as part of a Series D round.
Remitly comes in at number 17 this month, up four spots from October.
Remitly describes itself as the largest independent mobile remittance company in the U.S.; it allows people to send money from three countries (U.S., U.K., and Canada) to 10 countries (Philippines, India, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru). The company’s technology helps eliminate the need for forms, codes, agents, and other fees typically associated with the international money transfer process.
Stay Alfred, the Spokane, Wash. startup that rents out downtown apartments and turns them into short-term rentals, has been flying up the GeekWire 200 in recent months. This month it rose 13 spots to number 82 on the list, after climbing a combined 30 spots in September and October.
Stay Alfred just completed its largest deal yet, inking a master lease for 10 floors and 140 of 350 units in the 45-story 505 tower, the tallest building in Tennessee. Stay Alfred likes to rent big swaths of new apartment buildings and turn them into something like a boutique hotel. The company says it plays a role similar to a property management company, and it is legally licensed by cities it operates in, pays taxes and runs background checks on guests.
Founded in 2011, Stay Alfred says it hit $25 million in revenue before raising a $15 million funding round earlier this year. CEO Jordan Allen told GeekWire earlier this month that the company is on track for $100 million in revenue by the end of next year.
Lighter Capital is another frequent riser on the list, and this month it clocks in at number 129, up 16 spots. The Seattle investment company offers an alternative to venture capital and traditional bank loans, and earlier this month it announced a new $15 million fund in partnership with Intuit to support developers designing apps for the QuickBooks platform.
Qualified companies can receive $50,000 to $500,000 from Lighter Capital in four-to-six weeks, and up to $2 million overall.
Founded by Seattle-area entrepreneur Andy Sack, Lighter Capital provides revenue-based loans to companies — meaning entrepreneurs don’t have to forfeit equity in the company to get funding. The firm raised a $100 million fund in 2015.
Here are some of the other climbers on the GeekWire 200 this month:
- LoginRadius, up 13 spots to number 68
- Airbiquity, up 12 spots to number 99
- Outdoor Project, up 13 spots to number 13
- 98point6, up 37 spots to number 127
- HERO Sports, up 17 spots to number 142
- Volt Athletics, up 11 sports to number 146
- Doxo, up 12 spots to number 150
- HaloSource, up 12 spots to number 155
- Globys, up 20 spots to number 157
- Just Biotherapeutics, up 15 spots to number 163
- resin.io, up 10 spots to number 165
- Adaptiva, up 26 spots to number 167
- MovingWorlds, up 15 spots to number 170
A quartet of startups made their debut on the GeekWire 200 or returned to the list in November. They are: Sightbox, Make.TV Inc., IMPREV and DefenseStorm.
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 rankings are generated from publicly available data, including social media followings, approximate employee counts (via LinkedIn) 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.
