Every so often, we get sucked into a list touting the top regional startups or the most robust entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Well, a startup list released today from Microsoft-owned LinkedIn — titled “The 10 companies on the rise in Seattle” — grabbed our attention, for all of the wrong reasons.
Let’s just say: We know a thing or two about Seattle-area startups around here. And so we had to do a little fact-checking.
First of all, four of the companies on LinkedIn’s list — Anthropic, Auger, Whatnot and Armada — are not even headquartered in the Seattle area.
San Francisco-based Anthropic — ranked #1 on LinkedIn’s Seattle startup list — has a growing engineering center at Dexter Yard North in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. But to think that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and his team are cutting deals at the Washington Athletic Club or debating the future of AI over lattes in Kirkland is a hallucination bigger than most AI models could create.
If the LinkedIn team were studying GeekWire’s coverage, they’d also realize that #2 on their list, Auger, is not headquartered in the Seattle area, either. The AI logistics startup, co-founded by former Amazon executive Dave Clark, moved its headquarters to Dallas in August, although it maintains a Bellevue engineering center.
It keeps getting more bizarre from there. The #3 company on LinkedIn’s Seattle list is Whatnot, the heavily funded video-based shopping startup that set up an engineering center in Seattle last year, but is clearly headquartered in the Los Angeles area.
Finally, ranked #9 on the Seattle list is data center upstart Armada — a company that, according to its own LinkedIn profile, is based in San Francisco.
So, just to summarize: Three of the top Seattle startups (according to LinkedIn) have their headquarters in California, and one has its headquarters in Texas.
GeekWire columnist and angel investor Charles Fitzgerald pointed out the flaws in the list, calling it a “half-assed” effort. “For a Microsoft-owned company, you’d think they’d have better insight into where Seattle is actually located,” Fitzgerald said.
The list does include some companies that are actually based in the Seattle area.
Making the top 10 are: Bellevue-based Truveta (#4); Seattle-based Yoodli (#5); Redmond-based Worldscape (#6); Seattle-based Overland AI (#7); Seattle-based Gradial (#8); and Kent-based Stoke Space (#10).
All of those companies (except for Worldscape) are listed on the GeekWire 200, our ranking of the top 200 privately held startup companies in the Pacific Northwest. The other companies — Anthropic, Auger, Whatnot and Armada — are listed on our engineering center list.
Notably absent from LinkedIn’s Seattle list is Chainguard, which ranked #42 on LinkedIn’s accompanying report on the top 50 startups in the U.S. Chainguard is headquartered in Kirkland but is a fully remote company. The Seattle ranking counts only employees and hiring in the city, which may explain why a remote company like Chainguard didn’t make the cut.
For our purposes, given that one of the co-founders of the cybersecurity startup calls the Seattle area home, we claim it as a Seattle-area startup.
In its defense, LinkedIn describes a Seattle startup a bit differently than we do here at GeekWire.
According to its methodology, the ranking weighs four factors: employment growth, engagement with company pages, interest in job openings, and the ability to recruit talent from LinkedIn’s list of top companies. The data covers July 2025 through June 2026.
LinkedIn requires privately-held companies to be less than seven years old and headquartered in the United States to qualify for its U.S. rankings, but doesn’t require them to be headquartered in the Seattle area to make the Seattle list. All of which explains how a startup can make a list of Seattle’s top startups without actually being based in Seattle.
UPDATE: LinkedIn provided this statement to GeekWire:
“While companies do not need to be headquartered in Seattle to qualify, they must have at least 30 full-time employees based in the metro area. Our city lists are designed to spotlight startups gaining momentum, locally, recognizing that growing companies often have employees and operations across multiple markets. Further, the data for the city lists are reflecting employees based in that city only, versus the entire country.”
Companies building software for the AI boom and advanced machinery for space, energy and defense are remaking the Pacific Northwest’s tech economy, and both trends are showing up in full force on the GeekWire 200, our ranking of the region’s top privately held tech startups.
The Fall 2026 update, released Wednesday morning, features a new No. 1: Temporal, the Bellevue, Wash., company whose software keeps AI agents running reliably. It raised $550 million this month at a $12.55 billion valuation, more than double its value earlier this year. Its annualized revenue has passed $250 million, up more than 200% in a year, with customers including OpenAI, Nvidia and Netflix.
Temporal replaces fusion company Helion, now No. 2. Helion grew its Series G round to $500 million and opened a Seattle office as its headcount topped 800, but questions have emerged about its timeline for delivering fusion power to Microsoft by 2028.
Six of the top 10 companies build advanced machinery: fusion reactors, rockets, drones, radar, military vehicles and weed-zapping robots. Several of them spent the quarter scaling up production.
Stoke Space (No. 3), which is developing a fully reusable rocket, jumped three spots after it raised about $1 billion. It’s expanding its rocket test site in Moses Lake.
Brinc (No. 6), which makes drones that police and fire departments send to 911 calls, is moving into a new headquarters and factory in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood with three times the production space of its current plant.
Echodyne (No. 9), which makes compact radar used to detect and track drones, jumped 33 spots into the top 10 after it opened a $40 million factory in Woodinville to meet growing demand for drone detection.
The GeekWire 200 combines objective data, editorial insight and AI analysis of our coverage to provide a broad view of the region’s startup landscape. Dating to 2013, it has long served as a resource for investors, job seekers, service providers and others tracking the regional tech scene.
See the updated GeekWire 200, and continue reading for highlights. Here’s the new top 10.
Durable-execution infrastructure for the agentic-AI stack, valued at $12.55B after a $550M Series E led by Lightspeed, with OpenAI, Nvidia and Snap among its customers.
Kent, Washington • Defense and Space Manufacturing
Building the fully reusable Nova rocket, with roughly $1B raised and its Moses Lake test site expanding to 550 acres ahead of a first flight in early 2027.
Health-data platform built with a consortium of health systems; its co-founders are serving as interim co-CEOs as Terry Myerson retires at the end of September.
Kirkland, Washington • Appliances, Electrical, and Electronics Manufacturing
Radar maker that opened a $40M, 86,000-square-foot factory in Woodinville built for about 30,000 radars a year, and is adding 100 to 200 people on top of 260.
Overland AI (No. 7, up 2): The military autonomy startup landed a Marine Corps contract worth nearly $20 million, which it says makes it the first ground-autonomy company to serve as prime contractor on a military production deal. It also opened a Bay Area office to recruit AI and robotics talent.
Carbon Robotics (No. 8): The laser-weeding company added Plant Profiles, letting farmers tailor its AI model to their own crops and fields.
Dropzone (No. 10, up 3): The maker of autonomous AI agents for security operations enters the top 10 after more than doubling its headcount over the past year, the fastest growth of any company in the top 20.
Starcloud (No. 52, up 23): The Redmond company building data centers in orbit raised $250 million at a $2.3 billion valuation, with Nvidia joining as an investor.
Levanta (No. 72, up 5): The creator-marketing platform raised $22 million and says revenue is up 80% this year.
AIM Intelligent Machines (No. 100, up 10): The autonomous construction startup laid out its vision for self-driving bulldozers on Earth and, eventually, Mars.
Digs (No. 120, up 13): The Vancouver, Wash., homebuilding AI startup raised $25.3 million led by Builders FirstSource, which will offer its platform to 140,000 builder clients.
Augmodo (No. 122, up 23): The maker of AI camera badges for retail workers raised $21 million at a $350 million valuation and is expanding into warehouses, factories and other workplaces.
Nuance Labs (No. 163, up 20): The AI lab founded by former Apple researchers raised a $50 million Series A led by Lightspeed.
NewDays (No. 172, up 14): The dementia-care startup expanded its seed round to $16 million and expanded to Nevada.
New to the list
Entire (debut, No. 101): Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke’s startup launched a distributed Git network built for the load of AI coding agents. It’s the highest debut this quarter.
BrainChild Bio (debut, No. 117): The Seattle Children’s spinout raised $116 million to advance a CAR T therapy for a deadly childhood brain cancer.
BuyWander (debut, No. 124): The retail-returns marketplace moved its headquarters from Spokane to Kent and raised $21 million led by Madrona and Inspired Capital.
Endurance (debut, No. 128): Former SpaceX engineer Andrew Redd’s startup is tapping undersea volcanoes for geothermal power.
General Robotics (debut, No. 130): The Redmond startup led by Microsoft veterans says its AI has cut robot setup from a month to hours.
Thira (debut, No. 140): Apptio co-founders Sunny Gupta and Kurt Shintaffer reunited to launch the enterprise AI startup with $21 million led by Madrona.
Golden Analytics (debut, No. 152): The Bellevue startup led by Francois Ajenstat, Tableau’s longtime chief product officer, is using AI to take on traditional business intelligence tools. It launched with $7 million from NEA and Madrona in April, then added a $14 million extension led by Insight Partners in June, bringing its seed funding to $21 million.
Resect AI (debut, No. 158): The Washougal, Wash., startup launched out of stealth with $25 million to catch AI hallucinations before they happen.
Harell Data (debut, No. 176): Adaptive Biotechnologies co-founder Harlan Robins raised $15 million to connect AI developers with proprietary scientific data.
Noösphere Labs (debut, No. 180): Former Meta AI research director Kevin Carlberg raised $10.25 million from Trilogy and Madrona for the stealth physical AI startup.
Leaving the list
Agility Robotics (previously No. 5): The Salem, Ore., humanoid robot maker left the list as it prepares to go public in a $2.5 billion SPAC merger expected to close in the fourth quarter. It unveiled Digit 5, which lifts 50 pounds and is designed to work alongside people without safety barriers.
Common Room (previously No. 80): The sales-intelligence startup left the list after agreeing to be acquired by Zoom.
Auger (previously No. 31): The supply chain startup led by former Amazon operations chief Dave Clark moved its headquarters to Dallas. Auger still has a major engineering hub in Bellevue, which we’ve added to our list of engineering centers established in the region by companies headquartered elsewhere.
XBOW (previously No. 35): The AI hacking startup left the list because it doesn’t meet our standard that a company’s headquarters and leadership be based in the region. Its CEO is based in Malta, and its Seattle headquarters is a mailbox at a coworking space.
Notes on the GeekWire 200
Our list is not scientific, by any means, and the specific rankings should be taken with a grain of salt. But it has proven to be a valuable tool for many years. We hear regularly from readers who use the GeekWire 200 to look for jobs, prospect for customers, scout potential investments and get a high-level view of the region’s tech community.
Companies on the list must be privately held, founded within roughly the past 15 years and headquartered in the Pacific Northwest with their leadership based in the region. Companies generally leave the list when they agree to be acquired by another company or to go public.
To make sure your Pacific Northwest technology startup is eligible for the GeekWire 200, first confirm it’s included in the broader GeekWire Startup List. If so, there’s no need to submit it separately. If your startup isn’t among the companies on that larger list, you can submit it for inclusion here, and we’ll crunch the numbers to see if it makes the next GeekWire 200 update.
Login
