GEEK News
June 05, 2015 - 01:04 PM
JPMorgan and Mastercard back Seattle startup Firmly’s bet on AI shopping agents
Firmly CEO Kumar Senthil says merchants shouldn’t have to build a new integration for every AI shopping channel. (Firmly Photo) Firmly, a Seattle-area startup that helps online retailers sell through AI shopping assistants, raised a $15 million Series A round led by Squarepoint Capital, with participation from J.P. Morgan Payments, Mastercard, Samsung Next and others. The company, founded...
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Voters reject AI data centers, Shield AI’s $5.3B Echodyne deal, and a Seattle startup’s rare double exit
This week: Shield AI, the defense tech company building its X-BAT autonomous fighter jet south of Seattle, agrees to acquire Kirkland-based radar maker Echodyne in a deal valued at up to $5.3 billion. We discuss what it means for the Seattle region’s rise as a defense tech hub, how the midterm results could affect the sector, and the Mercer Island roots of Shield AI co-founders Brandon...
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How to be unemployed: Glenn Kelman on life after Redfin
At a conference, a fashion entrepreneur gave Glenn Kelman a bracelet that said “we are enough.” (Image via Glenn Kelman) After 20 years at Redfin, and 10 months of unemployment, I’ve co-founded a new company. My business partner and I will announce our plans after we’ve built our product, but in the meantime GeekWire asked me to explain what I learned in the transition between Redfin and this...
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Tech Moves: Fred Hutch leader goes to AWS; Temporal, Augmodo and Neuralwatt name execs
Amitabha “Guppy” Gupta. (LinkedIn Photo) — Amitabha “Guppy” Gupta, a Fred Hutch Cancer Center associate director who helps researchers translate their work to broader audiences, is leaving after 14 years to join Amazon. Starting Nov. 16, he will be a strategic advisor for nonprofit research and advanced AI with AWS’ Global Nonprofit Business. Gupta said technology was often an obstacle to...
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Amazon’s AI shopping agent moves into text messages, taking orders and tracking prices
Amazon’s Alexa for Shopping agent fills a cart from a text request in this example from the company. (Amazon Image) Amazon is rolling out a new feature to let customers shop by text message — sending requests to its Alexa for Shopping AI agent, which will search for products, compare options and place orders on their behalf. The idea is to make shopping work more like messaging a personal...
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Let there be LEDs: Tech upgrade helps James Turrell’s Skyspace shine again at UW art museum
James Turrell’s “Light Reign,” a permanent skyspace installed at the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery in Seattle in 2003. Exterior lighting glows in different colors at sunrise and sunset. (Photo courtesy of the Henry Art Gallery) For most of the past dozen years, a James Turrell artwork on the University of Washington campus in Seattle — built to glow at sunrise and sunset — has...
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Agility Robotics co-founder on its Nasdaq debut, lessons from Amazon, and the future of work
Agility Robotics co-founder and Chief Robot Officer Jonathan Hurst and the company’s Digit 5 humanoid robot, which was designed to work alongside people without a safety barrier. Agility began trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday. (Agility Robotics Photos) Agility Robotics of Salem, Ore., made its Nasdaq debut Thursday as the first publicly traded U.S. company devoted solely to humanoid robots —...
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Seattle startup OneCourt brings tactile tablets for blind and low-vision fans to NHL games
A hockey fan uses OneCourt’s tactile device during the NHL Heritage Classic, an outdoor game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Winnipeg Jets at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Oct. 25. (Ticketmaster Photo) Seattle startup OneCourt is bringing its haptic devices for blind and low-vision sports fans to hockey, with the NHL and Ticketmaster making the tablets available free...
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Shield AI to buy Bill Gates-backed radar maker Echodyne in $5.3B deal, doubling down on Seattle area
Echodyne CEO Eben Frankenberg, right, leads Sen. Maria Cantwell, left, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, behind her, and others on a tour of the company’s new radar factory in Woodinville, Wash., in July. Shield AI agreed to acquire Echodyne in a deal valued at up to $5.3 billion. (Echodyne Photo) Shield AI, the defense tech company planning to build its AI-piloted X-BAT fighter jet south of Seattle,...
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No sweat: High-tech T-shirt brand Neat survives ‘Shark Tank’ and lands $400K deal with Lori Greiner
CEO Jim Huffman, left, and COO Tyler Stelter of Seattle-based apparel maker Neat make their pitch in front of the sharks on ABC’s “Shark Tank” during an episode that aired Wednesday night. (Disney Photo / Daniel Delgado Jr.) If Jim Huffman and Tyler Stelter were sweating during their pitch on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” their T-shirts didn’t show it. It probably helped them land a deal. Huffman is...
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Uncommon Thinkers: Curiosity led Mary Brunkow to an immune breakthrough — and a Nobel Prize
Mary Brunkow receives her Nobel Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in Stockholm on Dec. 10, 2025. (Nanaka Adachi Photo) Editor’s note: This series profiles five Seattle-area “Uncommon Thinkers,” who will be recognized Dec. 10 at the GeekWire Gala in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners. Mary Brunkow had considered becoming a veterinarian or doctor — she knew she wanted to do...
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Longtime investor Martin Tobias says no to 99% of startups — his new AI tool helps them find a yes
Martin Tobias. (Incisive Ventures Photo) Martin Tobias was pitched by about 4,500 startups last year. He wrote 10 checks. Now the pre-seed investor is offering the rest of them a consolation prize: an AI tool that tells founders which investors are most likely to say yes. Tobias, a longtime figure in the Seattle tech scene, is now based in Spokane, Wash. He founded Loudeye, a digital...
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Amazon teams up with Uber on restaurant delivery, years after shutting down its own service
(Amazon Image) Amazon is bringing Uber Eats inside its own app, letting U.S. Prime members order restaurant delivery without a separate Uber account and skip the delivery fee on orders of $25 or more. The deal replaces a Prime perk with Grubhub, which Amazon made an ongoing benefit in 2024 after a one-year trial. Amazon said in a statement to GeekWire that it has ended that agreement after...
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Zillow CEO’s reality check on AI agents: ‘Finding a home isn’t a chore to hand off to a robot’
Zillow Group CEO Jeremy Wacksman says home shoppers want to do the searching themselves, even as AI agents take on more everyday tasks. (Zillow Photo) People will let AI agents cancel subscriptions and book appointments, but most won’t want one to do their house hunting, predicts Zillow Group CEO Jeremy Wacksman. Wacksman made the case Wednesday afternoon in prepared remarks on Zillow’s...
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A year in, Smartsheet CEO Raj Singh bets on a new vision beyond the company’s flagship product
Smartsheet CEO Raj Singh unveils vsActual, an AI product that customers can use without Smartsheet, during his keynote at the company’s Engage conference in Seattle on Wednesday. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Smartsheet’s biggest new product in years doesn’t require Smartsheet. The Bellevue, Wash.-based company on Wednesday unveiled vsActual, as in “plan versus actual,” an AI product that...
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A rare second exit: AI startup Suplari acquired by Docusign nearly 3 years after Microsoft spinout
Members of the Suplari team, as pictured on the company website. (Suplari Photo) Some startups dream of getting acquired by a big tech company. Suplari has now done it twice. Docusign on Tuesday announced its acquisition of the AI-powered spending analysis company, five years after Microsoft bought the Seattle-based startup and nearly three years after the Redmond tech giant spun the...
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Washington voters keep millionaires tax, splitting tech leaders over the state’s competitive edge
The Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Washington voters appear to have upheld the state’s new tax on high earners, putting the state on track to lose its place among the nine states without an income tax — a status that tech leaders have long touted as an edge in recruiting companies and talent. Initiative 645, which would repeal the 9.9% tax on...
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First X-BAT fighter jet prototype unveiled as Shield AI preps Seattle area factory for 2027 launch
A prototype of Shield AI’s X-Bat AI fighter jet, which will be built in the Seattle area. (Photo via Shield AI) Defense technology startup Shield AI has completed its first full-scale prototype of the X-BAT autonomous fighter jet as the company prepares its manufacturing and engineering hub south of Seattle. Constructed in 12 months at a facility in Frisco, Texas, the prototype is...
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Ai2 gets $5M from Google to turn AI weather model into a tool for projecting climate change
Ai2 plans to use funding from Google to build an open-source AI model for projecting climate change decades into the future. (Ai2 Image) Google is giving Seattle’s Allen Institute for AI about $5 million in funding, plus another $1.8 million in cloud credits, to turn an AI weather model developed by Google Research into a tool for projecting climate change decades into the future. The money...
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Amazon plans its first large-scale data centers in Washington state as residents raise concerns
Racks of servers inside an AWS data center in 2023. (AWS Photo / Noah Berger) Amazon is moving toward building its first large-scale data centers in Washington state, with a proposed campus in Walla Walla County and a second in the Tri-Cities that the company confirmed this week. The expansion into Amazon’s home state comes amid nationwide pushback against the rapid deployment of new AI...
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Finpilot raises $10M for AI agents that handle the grunt work for institutional investors
Finpilot co-founder and CEO Lakshay Chauhan. (Finpilot Photo) Seattle startup Finpilot, which uses AI agents to take the paperwork off the plates of people who invest money for hospitals, pension funds and foundations, has raised $10 million in a Series A round. The round was led by Bay Area venture firm Lobby Capital, with participation from Madrona, which led Finpilot’s $4 million seed...
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Rover hires Textio co-founder Jensen Harris and former Amazon exec Vik Rajagopal
Rover CFO Vik Rajagopal, left, and Jensen Harris, the company’s new president of marketplace, product and technology. (Photos via Rover) Seattle-based pet care marketplace Rover is adding two executives to its leadership team: former Motus CFO Vik Rajagopal as chief financial officer and Textio co-founder Jensen Harris as president of marketplace, product and technology. Rajagopal succeeds...
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Starfish Space loses contact with its Otter spacecraft, ending satellite inspection mission
An artist’s conception shows Starfish Space’s Otter spacecraft in orbit. (Starfish Space Illustration) Starfish Space says it can no longer receive data from its first full-scale Otter space vehicle, bringing a $15 million NASA mission to inspect inoperable satellites to a premature end. In a LinkedIn post, the Tukwila, Wash.-based startup said its Otter 24C spacecraft was not able to...
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Filing: Amazon’s previously announced layoffs include 95 jobs in Washington state
Most of the employees in the latest Washington notice are based in Amazon’s Seattle offices. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) A notice made public Tuesday evening, disclosing about 95 Amazon job cuts in Washington state, is part of the company’s previously reported layoffs in its retail business, not a new round of reductions, a spokesperson confirmed. The filing lists software...
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Amazon rewrites its software engineering playbook for an era when AI writes the code
Marc Brooker, an AWS VP and distinguished engineer, leads Velocity Labs, a small team inside Amazon’s cloud unit. (Amazon Photo) Last month, a small team inside Amazon Web Services called Velocity Labs went from concept to the public release of a new open-source AI model in less than a week. The group, whose existence hasn’t been previously reported, was formed in April. Velocity Labs has...
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Don’t miss Seattle tech’s biggest holiday party: Get early bird tickets for the GeekWire Gala
Scenes from a previous GeekWire Gala in Seattle. Tickets are now on sale for the big bash on Dec. 10. (GeekWire File Photo) Early bird tickets for the 2026 GeekWire Gala are on sale now. Join us Dec. 10 for Seattle tech’s biggest holiday celebration, with a new venue, fresh experiences and hundreds of the region’s top founders, investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders. This year, we’re...
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Tech Moves: Microsoft loses a CVP to AWS and gains one from Alteryx; Lila Bio and BECU name execs
Mazar Mohammed. (LinkedIn Photo) — After more than 33 years at Microsoft, Mazhar Mohammed has left to become vice president of AWS Streaming and Messaging at Amazon. Mohammed joined Microsoft as a software design engineer on Windows NT straight out of a master’s degree program. Over the decades, he also worked on messaging, mobile services and partner experience for cloud services. He most...
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Opinion: San Francisco is delivering, while Seattle is still deliberating
Seattle Metro Chamber CEO Joe Nguyễn found lessons for Seattle in a trip to San Francisco. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Editor’s note: GeekWire publishes guest opinions to highlight a range of perspectives on issues shaping the tech and startup community. To submit a guest column, email tips@geekwire.com. How can a region care so much, spend billions in tax dollars and yet leave...
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Microsoft opens Imagine Cup to startups, and the new rules show how its AI strategy has changed
Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar (left) looks on as members of the FROM YOUR EYES team hoist the trophy after winning the 2024 Imagine Cup at Microsoft Build in Seattle. The competition is expanding beyond students for the first time in 2027. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop) Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a competition for student developers since 2003, is expanding for the first time to early-stage startups...
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Accent bias: AI models penalize certain speakers in interviews and tests, UW study finds
According to University of Washington research, across job interviews, conference presentations and English proficiency tests, AI models generally ranked American and British speakers highest, Indian speakers in the middle, and Chinese and Nigerian speakers lowest. (BigStock Image) Picture two job candidates giving the same answer to the same interview question, word for word. One has an...
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How a Starbucks drive-thru ‘fast pass’ could actually work
Starbucks says roughly half of its customers use the drive-thru, where the company is exploring a “fast pass” for people who use its app. (Photo by Hamza Inayat on Unsplash) Starbucks’ idea to use technology to recognize regulars at the drive-thru is getting plenty of attention, but the actual implementation might not be as sci-fi as some of the headlines suggest. CEO Brian Niccol said on...
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Who gets your vote? What rumors should you spot? Election quiz and bingo offer guidance
Voters might find some election levity in a quiz for choosing candidates and a bingo game to recognize rumors. (Voter Lifeboat and UW CIP Images) With Election Day tomorrow, a Seattle-area tech entrepreneur has a quiz to help voters sort through candidates and ballot measures, while University of Washington researchers have a bingo card for spotting familiar election-fraud rumors. Both offer...
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Startup uses motion sensors and AI to tell families when an aging parent’s routine changes
Thessai’s bundle of motion sensors and panic buttons alongside the monitoring app. (Thessai Photo) Thessai, a Bellevue, Wash., startup led by a former Microsoft HoloLens executive, is rolling out a home monitoring system for older adults that flags trouble without cameras, microphones or wearables. Motion sensors placed around the home feed Thessai’s AI software, which learns a person’s...
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Pope Leo XIV on AI
Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech on AI at the Vatican on Oct. 30. (Vatican Media Photo) On Friday, 17 days after his surgery for lung cancer, Pope Leo XIV stood before a room of AI luminaries at the Vatican and delivered a speech on AI. No pope has engaged with AI as seriously, or as deeply, as Leo XIV. The timing shows how much AI matters to him. His remarks were important, on target, and...
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Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Oct. 25, 2026
Get caught up on the latest technology and startup news from the past week. Here are the most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of Oct. 25, 2026. Sign up to receive these updates every Sunday in your inbox by subscribing to our GeekWire Weekly email newsletter. Most popular stories on GeekWire Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and...
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