deal of the year
The Deal of the Year finalists at the GeekWire Awards include, clockwise from top left: Fund raisings by Recurrent, Oleria, Treasury4 and Rhythms, and the acquisition of Icosavax.

Four big startup fundraising rounds and one major acquisition in the biotech space make up the finalists in this year’s Deal of the Year category at the 2024 GeekWire Awards.

The award, presented by Wilson Sonsini, is aimed at recognizing transactions that had a significant impact on emerging Pacific Northwest companies.

Keep scrolling for descriptions of each finalist. And submit your vote here or below.

Recurrent, a platform providing shoppers and car dealerships with information about used electric vehicle batteries, raised $16 million in a Series A round in January. A spinout of Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs, Recurrent launched in 2020, and has established itself as a leader in used EV battery analytics.

Rhythms raised a $26 million seed round in December for its platform that connects to various systems inside a company and uses new breakthroughs in AI, such as large language models, to analyze a company’s “rhythms,” or habits and patterns — monthly business reviews, quarterly retrospectives, weekly cross-functional meetings, etc.

Oleria, a Seattle startup helping companies manage employee access to applications and data, raised $33.1 million in a Series A round in December. Oleria’s software is designed to help companies prevent and respond to breaches in an ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.

Icosavax, a spinout from the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design, announced in December that it would be acquired by biotech giant AstraZeneca for up to $1.1 billion. Founded in 2017, Icosavax is developing vaccines that resemble naturally occurring viruses. Its lead product targets respiratory viruses.

Treasury4, a Spokane, Wash.-based startup that helps enterprises and public sector professionals manage their financial and treasury processes, landed $20 million last September. The company sells a data analytics platform for planning and risk management, and provides real-time insights using a company’s internal data.

Warren Rice, director of business development at Bungie, accepts the award for Deal of the Year at the 2023 GeekWire Awards in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Kevin Lisota)

Last year’s winner was the $3.6 billion acquisition of Bellevue, Wash., game development studio Bungie by Sony. 

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 April 12, combined with feedback from judges to determine the winner in each category.

We’ll announce the winners live on stage at Showbox SoDo in Seattle on May 9. There are a limited number of table sponsorships available to attend the event. Learn more and sign up to attend on the GeekWire Awards event site.

If interested in sponsoring a category or purchasing a table sponsorship for the event, contact us at events@geekwire.com.

Special thanks to Astound Business Solutions, the presenting sponsor of the 2024 GeekWire Awards.

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