Seattle-area startups raised $3.5 billion in venture capital in the third quarter, the most in any quarter going back at least a decade, led by big rounds for Kent-based rocket maker Stoke Space, Bellevue developer platform Temporal and Everett fusion company Helion.

That’s more than triple the $1 billion raised in the region in the same quarter a year earlier, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. It’s also more than $1 billion above the previous quarterly high of about $2.4 billion, reached in late 2018 and again in late 2022.

Most of the money went to a handful of companies building physical things: rockets, satellites, spacecraft and fusion power plants. Three space companies in the region raised $1.6 billion combined: Stoke, Redmond-based Starcloud and Seattle’s Hubble Network.

Nationally, the trend went the other way. U.S. venture funding fell 40% from the prior quarter, to $98.4 billion, as the giant rounds for frontier AI labs that drove the first half of the year tapered off.

Seattle ranked seventh among U.S. metro areas for venture dollars in the quarter. The Bay Area led with $40.7 billion, followed by Los Angeles, New York, Austin, Boston and Denver. Denver’s $4.2 billion came largely from a single $3.9 billion round for AI data center developer Crusoe.

By number of deals, Seattle ranked eighth, with 94.

The total includes Helion’s $500 million round, which the company announced in June but PitchBook counts in the third quarter. Even without it, the quarter would still be the region’s biggest on record.

Seattle-based Hubble Network has reached a $1.6 billion valuation after raising $200 million in new funding to power its satellite-based Bluetooth connectivity network. The fresh capital propels the startup into unicorn territory as it works to connect billions of everyday, off-the-shelf devices directly to space.

The Series C round, led by Smith Point Capital, with Seraphim, Carthona Capital, Earthshot Ventures, Y Combinator, and RPM Ventures, brings total funding to $300 million. Hubble Network raised $70 million a year ago.

Hubble currently operates six satellites in low-Earth orbit and plans to expand to a full 60-satellite constellation built with satellite operator Muon Space by 2030. The company says its hybrid network — which blends ground-based tracking with satellite coverage — is live for pilot customers today, including software firm Samsara, with data speeds and update frequencies set to increase as more spacecraft launch.

“When we said we’d connect Bluetooth chips to satellites, most of the industry said the physics wouldn’t allow it,” Alex Haro, CEO and co-founder, said in a news release on Wednesday. “Today we’re turning that early skepticism into a global opportunity.”

Hubble’s swift rise underscores the Seattle region’s growing status as an epicenter for low-Earth orbit satellite development. While heavyweights like SpaceX’s Starlink facility in Redmond and Amazon’s Leo satellite division in Kirkland focus on high-bandwidth orbital internet, Hubble is carving out a distinct niche in low-power, direct-to-satellite IoT connectivity — reinforcing the Pacific Northwest’s footprint across commercial space technology.

The company, which employs about 70 people, is No. 135 on the GeekWire 200, our ranked index of the Pacific Northwest’s top startups.

Hubble’s system works via a software update, allowing standard Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) chips — found in everyday items like package trackers, vehicles, and pharmaceuticals — to broadcast signals directly to space. By pairing a ground-based network of nearly 90 million scanners with its satellite constellation, Hubble aims to replace costly cellular trackers with a setup running on roughly 50-cent chips and $4 monthly subscriptions.

Founded in 2021 by Haro, who previously co-founded location-sharing app Life360, and CTO Ben Wild, who invented Amazon Sidewalk, Hubble is positioning itself to disrupt traditional asset tracking by making global monitoring economically viable for everyday goods.

Haro noted that combining terrestrial and space networks drops tracking costs low enough to extend real-time visibility beyond high-value cargo to routine consumer items, like tracking a new pair of shoes directly from a warehouse to a front doorstep.

The company has no connection to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Instead, Hubble Network’s name plays off the idea that its network can serve as a hub for BLE transmissions.