Stoke Space’s existing Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida. (Stoke Space Photo)
Kent, Wash.-based Stoke Space has secured a conditional commitment for a $150 million loan from the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital to build a second launch pad at Cape Canaveral for a larger version of its fully reusable rocket.
The loan isn’t final until Stoke meets a list of financial, legal, technical and due-diligence requirements. The announcement Monday comes less than two months after Stoke raised roughly $1 billion in a Series E round, bringing its total funding to about $2.3 billion.
The new pad would serve Stoke’s Nova Block 2 rocket, which is designed to carry up to 15 metric tons to low Earth orbit. That’s five times the capacity of Nova Pathfinder, which Stoke plans to launch for the first time from its existing pad in early 2027. Block 2 is slated to debut in 2029.
The loan would be paired with private capital to pay for the pad, according to the Department of War. Jordan Sebold, senior managing director for investments at the Office of Strategic Capital, said in a statement that adding launch infrastructure would “enhance the overall capacity and resilience of the commercial space industrial base.”
The Office of Strategic Capital was set up in 2022 to draw private investment into technologies seen as critical to national security. The following year, Congress gave it the power to make loans and loan guarantees to companies in those fields. Space launch is one of the technology categories it targets.
“By expanding domestic launch facility capacity, this investment enables launch service providers to ensure our commercial and defense partners have reliable, high-cadence access to space,” David Lorch, the office’s director, said in the news release.
Stoke is already lined up for military launch work. In 2025, the Space Force added the company to a pool of providers that can compete for national security missions under Lane 1 of the program’s third phase. Lane 1 is the tier meant for newer launch companies and less demanding payloads. Stoke can’t bid on those missions until it completes a successful orbital flight.
The company has other federal ties as well. The Defense Innovation Unit awarded Stoke a $4.5 million contract in 2024 to study rapid delivery of cargo to orbit, and possibly back to Earth. In June, Stoke was one of 37 companies NASA chose for unfunded partnerships. Stoke’s project focuses on returning Nova’s upper stage safely through the atmosphere.
Nova is designed so both of its stages can return and fly again. The booster flies itself back for recovery. The upper stage uses a metal heat shield cooled by liquid hydrogen that circulates through channels inside it, to survive the heat of reentry. Only SpaceX, with its much larger Starship, is pursuing the same goal, and it hasn’t fully achieved it yet. Stoke has yet to launch a rocket to orbit.
Stoke was founded in 2019 by two Blue Origin veterans: Andy Lapsa, the CEO, and Tom Feldman, the chief technology officer. The company has about 400 employees. Most work at its 168,000-square-foot factory and headquarters in Kent, and about 50 are at its test site in Moses Lake, which is expanding from 75 to 550 acres. About 50 more work at Cape Canaveral.
GeekWire reached out to Stoke Space for comment and we’ll update this story when we hear back.
Q3 2026 VC deal activity by U.S. metro area. Note: PitchBook’s map uses broader regional boundaries than the metro-area figures in this story (PitchBook-NVCA Graphic, click to enlarge.)
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.
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.
Stoke Space CEO Andy Lapsa speaks Monday at a Creative Destruction Lab-Seattle event at Alexandria’s Eastlake Avenue building in Seattle, calling on Washington state to do more to support the next generation of founders. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)
Making the entrepreneurial leap is hard enough, let alone launching a company into orbit. Andy Lapsa gave up a well-paying job, spent his family’s nest egg and went 15 months before paying himself half his old salary to get Stoke Space off the ground.
He said Stoke chose Washington state for its world-class talent in software, aerospace and manufacturing, and for a virtuous cycle in which iconic global companies bring talent and suppliers to the region, and their alumni go on to start companies of their own.
But if Lapsa and co-founder Tom Feldman were starting the Kent, Wash.-based rocket company today, he told a Seattle audience Monday, he’s not sure they’d do it here.
Lapsa cited factors including a political climate that vilifies successful companies and their founders; a state that does less than others to court promising startups; Seattle’s public schools, which he described as a failed institution; and the push for a wealth tax on unrealized gains, which he said would put startups out of reach for anyone who isn’t already wealthy.
“What will it take to ensure the next Stoke builds here, too? If Stoke were starting today, I’ll be straight honest with you: I’m not sure we’d make the same decision,” he said.
Lapsa delivered the keynote at “Manufacturing the Future in the PNW: Space, Defense & Robotics,” a Seattle Space Week event hosted by Creative Destruction Lab-Seattle.
The speech, which he read from multiple sheets of printed paper, drew on his family’s story and at one point left him choked up. The crowd gave him a standing ovation at the end. The talk was the buzz of the afternoon and the Space Week kickoff at the Museum of Flight in the evening.
Echoes of Schultz: Lapsa’s remarks tracked closely with a July op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who singled out Stoke as a test for the state.
“We should all be watching Stoke Space,” Schultz wrote, to see whether it and other companies “decide that Washington is the best place for them to grow.”
Schultz, who moved to Miami earlier this year, came up in Lapsa’s speech, too. Lapsa cited him and Jeff Bezos as examples of successful founders the region has vilified, and he pointed to Boeing’s headquarters move and Amazon’s HQ2 as part of the same pattern.
Other states calling: Lapsa said South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Idaho and Illinois had all emailed him in the past week or two trying to get Stoke to open up shop there.
“I’ve never received the same in Washington state,” he said.
To be clear, in questioning whether he would make the same decision today, Lapsa was speaking hypothetically about founders starting new companies, and didn’t suggest that Stoke plans to leave Washington, where the company has been expanding its operations.
Hours later, Lapsa was among the 23 members of Gov. Bob Ferguson’s new Washington Space Council, introduced at the Space Week kickoff event, as GeekWire reported. Speaking there, Lapsa struck a similar tone, stressing the need for the state to move quickly.
“States like Florida and Texas and Colorado want this industry, and they want it bad,” he said. “They compete for it every day. Washington has every advantage it needs to lead them all, and the window to use those advantages is open right now.”
A rocket ship: Lapsa’s comments carry additional weight because of Stoke’s trajectory.
Stoke is developing Nova, a rocket designed so that both of its stages can return and fly again, with the goal of making access to space cheaper and more frequent. It’s only the second company to pursue full reusability, after SpaceX, which reuses the first stage of its Falcon 9 but hasn’t yet achieved full reuse with its much larger Starship.
The company announced a roughly $1 billion Series E round this month, bringing its total funding to about $2.3 billion. It has more than 350 employees in Washington state, a 168,000-square-foot factory in Kent, and a test site in Moses Lake that it’s expanding from 75 to 550 acres.
The first Nova launch is scheduled for early 2027 from Cape Canaveral.
The personal stakes: Lapsa made his case against a wealth tax by telling a personal story that he said he had never told before.
His father grew up in a post-war refugee camp and waited 12 years to immigrate to the U.S., arriving without speaking English. He became a university researcher, but Lapsa’s mother still worked a minimum-wage job to help put Lapsa and his two siblings through college. Lapsa and his wife graduated from college about $200,000 in debt and spent about a decade paying it off.
When he left Blue Origin to start Stoke in 2019, he gave himself nine months to get on track to earn a living wage. Small-business grants and a few angel investors kept the company going.
That’s why proposals to tax unrealized gains worry him. When a startup raises money, its founders become wealthy on paper overnight, he said, without a dime of cash to pay the resulting tax bill.
“It makes it so that the only people who can afford to start a company are the people who are already rich,” he said.
Washington doesn’t tax unrealized gains. However, Lapsa noted that the idea of a wealth tax has been popularized in California and to some extent locally. A one-time tax on California billionaires’ net worth is on the November ballot there, and wealth-tax bills introduced in Olympia haven’t advanced.
Washington’s new 9.9% tax on income over $1 million, which takes effect in 2028 if it survives legal and ballot challenges, applies to income, not to the paper value of a founder’s shares.
A note of optimism: Lapsa closed by urging the audience to look past the headlines in their feeds and think critically about the consequences of the policies being proposed. He warned that political extremism harms the country and benefits its adversaries, and that both sides of the aisle are feeding a dangerous cycle of rhetoric.
Americans have more in common than their differences, he said. The freedoms they share, including the ability to change public policy when it isn’t working, are what made the U.S. the greatest country in history, he added.
“These are the reasons I stubbornly cling to the hope that Washington state will come around,” he concluded, “and the next Stoke Space decides here is their place.”
Updated at 3:56 p.m. to clarify that Washington does not tax unrealized gains, and to add context about wealth-tax proposals and the state’s new tax on high earners.
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