The finalists for Deal of the Year at the 2023 GeekWire Awards all struck big transactions to help fuel their companies focused on cancer therapies, gaming, clean energy, data analytics, and money management.
The finalists in the category are Affini-T Therapeutics, Bungie, Copper, First Mode and MotherDuck.
This category recognizes an acquisition, IPO or financing round that occurred between April 2022 and April 2023.
Last year’s winner was Seattle fintech company Remitly, which lets people send and receive money across borders and went public in 2021.
The GeekWire Awards recognize the top innovators and companies in Pacific Northwest technology. Finalists in this category and others were selected based on community nominations, along with input from GeekWire Awards judges. Community voting across all categories will continue until May 1, combined with feedback from judges to determine the winner in each category.
We'll announce the winners on May 18 at the GeekWire Awards, presented by Astound Business Solutions. There are a limited number of table sponsorships available to attend the event. Contact our events team at events@geekwire.com for more information.
Submit your votes here or below and keep scrolling for descriptions of each finalist for Deal of the Year, presented by Wilson Sonsini.
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Affini-T Therapeutics launches with $175M
Affini-T Therapeutic is taking a swing at cancer with tech spun out of the lab of biotech veteran Philip Greenberg, a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center immunologist.
“I’m almost certain it will have anti-tumor activity,” said Greenberg of the cell therapy approach for solid tumors. “What we’d like to see is tumor eradication.”
The company, which has locations in Seattle and Boston, launched in 2022 with $175 million in initial financing. Affini-T’s CEO and president is co-founder Jak Knowles, who was previously vice president of venture investments at Leaps by Bayer, the investment arm of Bayer that co-led the funding round along with Vida Ventures.
Related coverage: Fred Hutch spinout Affini-T Therapeutics lands $175M for cell therapies to treat solid tumors
Bungie acquired for $3.6B
In January 2022, Bungie announced that it was getting acquired by Sony in a massive $3.6 billion deal. As part of the deal, the company retained its management team and board, chaired by longtime CEO Pete Parsons. Bungie is now an independent Sony Interactive Entertainment subsidiary.
Bungie’s initial success was tied to Microsoft. The Bellevue-Wash.-based game development shop, once part of the tech giant, drove the success of the original Xbox in 2001 with Halo: Combat Evolved. Bungie spun out of Microsoft in 2007 and later launched the Destiny franchise of online multiplayer shooter games, set in a world 700 years in the future.
Related coverage: Bungie officially joins PlayStation as $3.6B deal closes
Copper raises $29M
Teen-focused fintech startup Copper landed $29 million in August to fuel growth, following a $13.3 million seed round in 2021.
The Seattle company targets users in the 10- to 19-year-old range with a debit card and app experience that involves parents. It incentivizes teens to save money by giving cash in exchange for hitting a savings goal or paying back parents on time. Teens can also earn money by simply passing a quiz about finance.
The startup recently expanded into investing, enabling users to direct funds from their accounts into exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Related coverage: Copper, a banking app for teens with nearly 1M users, lands $29M to expand into investing
First Mode inks $1.5B transaction
In January First Mode and Anglo American closed a $1.5 billion transaction to remake First Mode as a clean-energy company for heavy industry. Anglo American, a global mining company, became First Mode’s majority shareholder.
The business combination blends First Mode’s engineering operation with Anglo American’s nuGen effort to develop a zero-emission system for hauling ore. First Mode created the hydrogen-fueled hybrid powerplant for an Anglo American’s mining truck that debuted in South Africa recently as the world’s largest zero-emission vehicle.
As part of the deal, First Mode moved its headquarters to London, but kept production facilities in Seattle and retained a proving ground for zero-emission trucks and associated infrastructure in Centralia, Wash.
Related coverage: First Mode, Anglo American wrap up $1.5B transaction for zero-emission mining
MotherDuck lands $47.5M
Seattle-based startup MotherDuck emerged in November, revealing its data analytics platform and $47.5 million in funding. MotherDuck pitches a serverless analytics service for “lightweight” use cases, built on the open-source platform DuckDB. The platform can run anywhere, including on a user’s browser.
The company was founded by Jordan Tigani, previously chief product officer at database vendor SingleStore and a founding engineer at Google’s BigQuery, a serverless data warehouse. The company’s backers include Redpoint Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.
Related coverage: Seattle data analytics startup MotherDuck emerges from stealth, reveals $47.5M in funding
Thanks to gold-level and category sponsors: Wilson Sonsini, JLL, Blink, BECU, Baird, Fuel Talent, RSM, Talent Reach, WTIA, Meridian Capital, Bank of America, and T-Mobile. And thanks to silver level sponsors: First Tech, Remitly, Fuel Talent, and SolluCIO Partners.
If interested in sponsoring a category or purchasing a table sponsorship for the event, contact us at events@geekwire.com.
