The Seattle area is home to many growing startups.
Anthony Bolante | PSBJ
Seattle-area startups hit major milestones in 2021, between massive fundraisings, headcount growth and acquisitions. Given the frantic pace of tech growth, it's unlikely we'll see a lull in activity any time soon.
With that in mind, Seattle Inno has compiled a list of startups to watch in 2022.
The list is not definitive, but rather a starting point. It is the product of our news team, which has covered the Seattle-area tech ecosystem for the past year. If you think we've overlooked a startup, let us know.
Although there are exceptions, this list loosely defines startups as companies founded no earlier than 2016. Editors also focused on companies that haven't raised beyond their Series C.
Scroll through this gallery to see the 22 companies, in no particular order, poised to make major moves in 2022.
2022 startups to watch
1 of 22
Seattle-based pay equity startup Syndio and CEO Maria Colacurcio gained major funding in 2021. The startup, founded in 2016, raised $17.1 million early last year and followed that up with a $50 million Series C in September. In between those two rounds, Syndio, which helps clients identify pay disparities across race and gender, raised $1 million from Penny Jar Capital and its high-profile backer, two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry.
Anthony Bolante | PSBJ
FlavorCloud, an international shipping startup headquartered in Seattle, grew from 14 employees in April to 35 employees at the end of 2021. CEO Rathna Sharad founded the company in 2018. FlavorCloud automates customs, tariffs and compliance to help brands with international shipping. Its clients include Xbox, TomboyX and Spiceology.
Anthony Bolante | PSBJ
Customer experience startup Magnify has a presence in both Seattle and Bend. The company raised $6 million in seed funding from Madrona Venture Group and other investors last year and named Sajo Jacob, an Amazon and Microsoft veteran, as chief technology officer and co-founder. The startup spun out of Madrona Venture Labs in August.
Magnify
Foreverly, founded last year, connects those grieving the loss of a loved one with support from their network. Users can set up a registry so friends and family can help take care of services like flowers and food. Keara Kindelynn (pictured) is co-founder and CEO of the company, which had been based in Renton until last month but now works remotely.
Foreverly
Seattle-based e-commerce startup Fabric and CEO Faisal Masud saw the startup's growth explode last year. The startup, founded in 2017, raised $43 million in February and $100 million in July. Fabric helps clients, including GNC and Crate & Barrel, adjust their online shopping experiences without needing major back-end changes. The startup also made key hires last year in both tech and human resources.
Photographer: Bob Peterson
Seattle-based cloud company Upbound raised a $60 million Series B round in November. Founder and CEO Bassam Tabbara, a 12-year veteran of Microsoft, previously co-founded a cloud storage company called Symform that was acquired in 2014. DFDS, a European freight shipping and ferry service company, and Deutsche Bahn, a European transportation company, are both clients of Upbound.
Upbound
Aloft, a real estate appraisal startup headquartered in Seattle, raised a $20 million Series A in November that included big-name investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Fifth Wall and Zillow co-founder Spencer Rascoff. The company, founded in 2021, operates in Seattle and Portland and plans to expand this year. Travis Soukup (left) is Aloft's CEO, while Yongxing Deng (right) is CTO and head of product.
Zack Phillips
WhyLabs, which monitors clients' machine learning models and notifies them if anything is performing unpredictably, spun out of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in 2019. The startup, led by co-founder and CEO Alessya Visnjic, raised a $10 million Series A in November, and it counts Madrona Venture Group and Bezos Expeditions among its investors.
WhyLabs
Bellingham-based real estate tech startup Place exploded onto the scene last year with a $100 million raise that pushed its value over $1 billion. The company had about 300 employees as of November and planned to hit between 750 and 1,000 full-time employees over the next year. Ben Kinney, Place's co-founder and co-CEO, told the Business Journal the company is looking to fill offices in Seattle, Portland and Salt Lake City.
BUSINESS JOURNAL PHOTO | Anthony Bolante
Machine learning startup OctoML spawned from research that began at the University of Washington about five years ago, but the company incorporated in 2019. The startup, led by co-founder and CEO Luis Ceze, raised a $28 million Series B in March and an $85 million Series C in November. In addition to running his startup, Ceze is a professor at the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, where he has taught since 2007.
OctoML
![Katie Fanning[1].v1](https://media.bizj.us/view/img/12131627/katie-fanning1v1*540xx1237-823-0-321.png)
Mozart CEO Katie Fanning said she wants to change the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases the same ways its famous namesake composer changed music. The Seattle-based biotech raised $55 million in October. At the time of the raise, Mozart had 14 employees, all based in the Seattle area, but planned to double that number over the next year.
Mozart Therapeutics
Saltbox, although not headquartered in the Seattle area, is nevertheless making an impact on the local tech scene through its "co-warehousing" space. The Atlanta-based startup, founded in 2019, offers flexible warehouse space, coworking amenities and logistics support. The company opened a roughly 30,000-square-foot flexible warehouse space in Sodo in August and plans to double that space. Saltbox founders are Maxwell Bonnie (right), Tyler Scriven (middle) and Paul D'Arrigo (left).
Saltbox
Real estate fintech startup Tomo, which was founded in 2020, had about 30 employees in Seattle as of July, despite having its official headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. The company was co-founded by former Zillow executives Carey Armstrong (above) and Greg Schwartz, and it raised a $70 million seed round last year.
Tomo
Seattle-based Flyhomes, which helps homebuyers present cash offers to sellers, landed a $150 million Series C round in June. At the time, Flyhomes said it had helped buyers close on $2.6 billion worth of homes. Tushar Garg (left) is co-founder and CEO of Flyhomes, while Lisa Wu (right) is a partner at Flyhomes investor Norwest Venture Partners.
Ellie Javadi/Flyhomes
Seattle-based Tribute offers a peer-to-peer mentorship app that allows users to connect based on goals and experiences. The startup was founded in 2019 but already counts Seattle-area heavyweights like Zillow and Remitly as clients. Tribute's team (above) from left to right, Sarah Moore, product design; Scott Faverty, customer success; Sarah Haggard, CEO and founder; Ian Ma, chief technology officer
Tribute
Seattle-based Archera, previously Reserved.ai, helps clients reduce their cloud costs. Co-founder and CEO Aran Khanna told the Business Journal in October, around the time of the company's $7 million Series A, Archera had 18 employees but planned to more than double that number by the end of 2022. The startup was founded in 2019 and counts Hiya, Fortive and Kumu as clients.
Archera
Seattle-based DroneSeed, founded in 2016, uses drones to reforest after wildfires. The startup acquired the Pierce County-based forestry company Silvaseed last year, helped in part by a $36 million Series A round DroneSeed raised in September. DroneSeed plans to use the funds to take on more reforestation projects.
DroneSeed
Brother-sister duo Nancy Xiao (left) and Jim Xiao (right) swapped roles at Seattle-based Mason in August. Nancy, previously the president of Mason and a board member, took over the CEO role. Jim, Mason's founder and previously the CEO, stepped into the role of president. The company, which offers hardware and software to help clients create smart Android devices, said in August it had grown its headcount by 50% over the past year and increased the number of devices on its platform by 40%.
Mason/Business Wire
Seattle-based Omnidian, founded in 2016, remotely monitors solar assets for maintenance and performance. Omnidian raised a $33 million Series B round in September, and founder and CEO Mark Liffmann said the company is looking to roughly double revenue each year for the next several years. At the time of the Series B, Liffmann said Omnidian had about 100 employees, including more than 50 in the Seattle area.
Omnidian
Seattle-based accounting technology startup Lockstep, which was founded in 2019, had a busy 2021. The company raised a $10 million Series A in February and followed that up with a $2.5 million investment from Amex Ventures, the venture arm of American Express Co., in August. Peter Horadan, CEO and co-founder of Lockstep, previously told the Business Journal the startup had grown from 30 to 70 employees between February and August.
Stuart Mullenberg
Seattle-based Logixboard, a customer experience platform for freight forwarders, moved its operations to Seattle in 2019 to be part of the Techstars accelerator. In April, the startup raised a $13 million Series A led by Redpoint Ventures, which has a portfolio that includes Stripe and Netflix. Julian Alvarez (right) and his brother Juan Alvarez (left) are the co-founders of Logixboard.
Logixboard
Seattle-based health care startup Truveta, led by former Microsoft executive Terry Myerson, unveiled a clinical care data platform last year that has already gained major traction. As of early November, 20 health systems were using Truveta's technology, and the company had raised almost $200 million. Truveta was founded in 2020.
Truveta
