The picks are in for Seattle Inno's 2023 Fire Awards.
The Fire Awards recognize the area's most innovative companies. The 25 finalists and the five winners are a testament to the growing tech sector in our area.
The winners, whom we have dubbed Blazers, came from five categories and an initial nominee list of 25 companies — five companies in each of the five categories. This year's winners represent a variety of company types, from established software companies to clean energy startups to hardware companies.
Our newsroom considered factors such as funding, revenue growth, mission, community impact and future potential when selecting the list. And the winners are:
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
- WINNER: JOON CARE
Seattle-based teletherapy startup Joon Care first started seeing patients in 2020. The company provides virtual therapy appointments for teens and young adults through a smartphone or tablet, while the therapist sees patients through a desktop. In addition to providing tech tools, Joon provides evidence-based guidance to its therapists so they can provide better care.
THE GROWING FISH
- WINNER: ZENSA
Zensa, headquartered in Redmond, is a tech consulting firm that helps its clients with cloud services. According to the company, its services include app modernization, hardware engineering and internet-of-things data. Zensa has scored big-name clients like Amazon, Microsoft and Meta. The company was founded in 2014, according to its website.
THE BIG FISH
- WINNER: APPTIO
Bellevue-based business software maker Apptio made headlines earlier this year when it sold to tech giant IBM for $4.6 billion. The deal, which officially closed in August, will "drive ubiquity and faster scale," according to co-founder and CEO Sunny Gupta. Apptio helps clients monitor the return they're getting on their tech spending. The company has more than 1,500 clients, including Bank of America, FedEx, Allstate and Nike.
ALL ABOUT THE GREEN (ENERGY)
- WINNER: GROUP14 TECHNOLOGIES
Woodinville-based battery technology company Group14 Technologies in July acquired German company Schmid Silicon, a company that produces a key gas for Group14's technology called silane. Group14, founded in 2015, makes a silicon-based anode powder to replace the traditional graphite powder found in most batteries today. The goal is to make batteries cheaper, smaller and longer-lasting. The company raised a $614 million Series C round last year and an extra $100 million from the Department of Energy.
BEYOND SOFTWARE
- WINNER: JAXJOX
Redmond-based home gym company JaxJox launched in 2016. The company’s home gym features an adjustable kettlebell and dumbbells, a vibrating foam roller and a rotating touch screen that can track data and provide coach-led workouts. JaxJox got a major boost in May 2022 when four-time Olympic gold medal sprinter Michael Johnson, the only male athlete to win both the 200- and 400-meter dashes at the same Olympics, joined the company’s advisory board. Former NFL tight end Vernon Davis invested in the company in June 2022.
