Technology

Seattle-Area Tech Firm Icertis Reaches Unicorn Status With $115M Funding Round
The contract-management solutions company will use the capital to augment its technology and expand its global reach
Bellevue-based tech company Icertis has closed a $115 million funding round that puts the company in the elite group of unicorn companies, defined as startups that have reached the $1 billion valuation level. Icertis is a software as a service (SaaS) provider specializing in contract-management solutions. It counts as clients major companies like 3M, Airbus,…

Seattle Customer-Data Management Firm Amperity raises $50M
The funds will be used to expand the companys capabilities and industry reach
Seattle tech startup Amperity has raised $50 million in a new founding round as part of an effort to expand the reach of its customer-data management platform in terms of capabilities and industry reach. The latest funding round, a Series C financing, brings the companys total funding to date to $87 million, the company announced….

Facebook’s Hiring Goals Will Make Its Growing Seattle-Area Workforce Far More Diverse
The tech giant wants to hire far more women, African-Americans and Hispanics
Facebook, which has been on a major hiring spree in the Seattle area over the past year, says it plans to double the number of women in its workforce globally and to also double the number of African American and Hispanic employees in its U.S. workforce over the next five years, according to its global…

Study Assessing the Best U.S. Tech Cities to Work In Puts Seattle at No. 18
Among the top 25 cities in the ranking, Seattle had the highest cost of living
Yet another ranking of cities comparing their tech-worker cultures is out, but this one offers a twist in that its methodology favors markets that offer tech workers great career opportunity absent the high cost of living found in tech-dominate metros like San Francisco, Boston and New York. How did Seattle fare in the assessment, which…

Seattle Rocks as a Tech Startup Hub, But Some Cities Are Gaining Ground
Austin, San Diego and Atlanta are proving to be serious competitors, study reveals
Seattle, to the surprise of few, is one of the nations leading places for tech startups, and that point is driven home by a new study by the New York-based Center for an Urban Future, which ranks the city as one of the top tech hubs in the nation in terms of startup growth. But…

Clean Energy Startup LevelTen Nabs $20M
Seattle company will use the Series B funding to expand to Europe and add products and services
Seattles LevelTen Energy, a TechStars accelerator alum founded in 2016, has raised $20.5 million in a series B funding round. The company will use the cash to expand its presence in North America and Europe and grow its platform, which allows companies to more quickly and efficiently fund renewable energy projects. Company founder and CEO…

Tech Powerhouse Hewlett Packard Is Acquiring Seattles Cray Inc.
Transaction will bring the maker of the worlds fastest supercomputers under the umbrella of a longtime industry giant
A legacy Seattle technology company, supercomputer maker Cray Inc. (CRAY: Nasdaq), is being acquired by another giant of the technology industry, San Jose, California-based Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE: NYSE) for $35 per share in cash, a deal worth about $1.3 billion, the companies announced. The acquisition is slated to close by the end of January…

LeoStella Inks Deal to Manufacture Satellite Belt to Store Data in Space
Seattle-area startup will produce the cyber-secure SpaceBelt network for Cloud Constellation Corp.
LeoStella, a small-satellite maker based in Tukwila, has landed a contract to manufacture a 10-satellite constellation for Los Angeles. -based Cloud Constellation Corp. that, once in space, will provide secure data storage for private enterprises, government and military clients. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the cost of such small satellites can run…

Private Equity Firm Acquires Majority Stake in Seattle-based Lighthouse
Deal sets tech company up for further growth and acquisitions, Lighthouse CEO says
Lightyear Capital LLC, a New York private equity firm, has acquired a controlling interest in Seattle based Lighthouse, which provides software solutions that help legal and compliance teams manage enterprise data and the electronic-discovery process. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Lightyears announcement states that investment funds affiliated with Lightyear have acquired a controlling…

Bellevue Enterprise Software Firm Zenoti Hauls in $50M in New Funding
Company plans to double employment in the Seattle area and expand its global market reach
Bellevue-based Zenoti, a fast-growing provider of cloud-based enterprise software services to the beauty and wellness industry, has announced it has closed a $50 million funding round that will be used to propel the companys expansion in Seattle and globally. With the recent funding round, led by Tiger Global Management with participation from Norwest Venture Partners…

Amazon Expands Its Reach in the Trucking Industry
The Seattle tech giant unveils a new online freight-brokerage platform
E-commerce giant Amazon is disrupting yet another market. This time its the digital freight-brokerage sector, an emerging industry that allows shippers to connect with haulers directly to schedule loads via an online platform. Amazon has quietly turned on its own digital-freight brokerage platform, at freight.amazon.com, a service that industry publication Freight Waves reports is undercutting…