The love for Seattle runs deep.
During a night of celebration for innovators, entrepreneurs, educators and even soccer stars who power and support the region’s tech community, the overriding message at the 2026 GeekWire Awards on Thursday was that this is the place to build and grow.
“Seattle is a really, really cool tech community,” said Brett Goodwin of Next Tech Titan winner Carbon Robotics.
“The talent is incredible and very, very, very generous,” said CEO of the Year Luis Poggi of HouseWhisper AI.
More than 300 members of the Pacific Northwest tech scene packed the Showbox SoDo to honor the year’s top startups, founders, leaders and deal makers across a dozen awards categories.
Now in its 15th year, the Awards, presented by longtime sponsor Astound Business Solutions, attracted hundreds of nominations and thousands of votes, with winners ultimately accepting the geeky and coveted robot trophies.
“Everywhere you turn, there’s someone building something bold, from autonomous earth movers, reshaping industry to robotic spacecraft and AI transforming how we work, hire and heal,” said Astound’s Karen Dhillon.
Keep reading for a recap of all the winners and honorees, and highlights of acceptance speeches (edited for brevity):
Deal of the Year, presented by Wilson Sonsini
Winner: Omeros
The gist: A Seattle-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, Omeros struck a deal worth up to $2.1 billion with pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk for zaltenibart, its clinical-stage drug candidate in development for rare blood and kidney disorders. Announced in October, the agreement gives Novo Nordisk exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize the drug.
Acceptance speech: Greg Demopulos, CEO of Omeros, called the award “unexpected and genuine,” saying it reflects that deep scientific innovation and long-term value generation is still important. He said the Novo Nordisk partnership came “from persistence, from tremendous scientific rigor and from a truly remarkable team,” and thanked Omeros employees, shareholders, and the Seattle innovation community.
Other finalists: Kestra Medical Technologies, Protect AI, Statsig, and Temporal. See this post for more background on this category.
Next Tech Titan, presented by Baird
Winner: Carbon Robotics
The gist: The ag-tech startup builds AI-powered machinery designed to eliminate weeds without the use of chemical herbicides. Its flagship LaserWeeder uses computer vision to identify and zap weeds with lasers, a process powered by the company’s “Large Plant Model.” Founded in 2018 by Isilon Systems co-founder Paul Mikesell, the Seattle-based company has raised $177 million to date and employs about 260 people. Its LaserWeeders are now active on hundreds of farms across 15 countries.
Acceptance speech: Brett Goodwin, vice president of marketing at Carbon Robotics, said the company builds “physical AI for agriculture” and noted that Carbon crossed $100 million in revenue in less than four years of shipping. “Seattle is a really, really cool tech community,” he said, adding that it has “a disproportionate impact on the innovation frontier.”
Other finalists: Overland AI, Stoke Space, Chainguard and MotherDuck. See this post for more background on this category.
Young Entrepreneur of the Year, presented by Prime Team Partners
Winner: Bill Zhu, CEO of Pokee AI
The gist: Zhu is founder and CEO of Pokee AI, a Seattle-area startup building AI agents that automate online workflows. Pokee, which raised a $12 million seed round last July, differentiates itself by applying reinforcement learning to help agents sequence and use tools efficiently, rather than relying solely on large language models. Zhu was previously head of applied reinforcement learning at Meta, where he worked for more than seven years.
Acceptance speech: Zhu is building a foundation model focused on on-premises and on-device deployment, which he called rare territory for the Pacific Northwest. “Whenever you see model companies, you hear OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI — they’re all in the Bay Area,” he said. “There’s got to be more modeling heat here in Seattle.”
Other finalists: Emily Choi-Greene (Clearly AI); Caleb John (Pioneer Square Labs); Kavian Mojabe (MediScan AI); Charles Wu (Orchard Robotics). See this post for more background on this category.
Hardware, Robotics, and Physical AI of the Year
Winner: BRINC
The gist: Brinc builds drones for police, fire and emergency response agencies, recently unveiling Guardian, the world’s first Starlink-connected drone. Guardian can auto-launch on a 911 call, fly up to eight miles at 60 mph for more than an hour, and deliver payloads such as defibrillators and emergency medication. The company’s products are used by more than 900 public safety agencies and more than 20% of SWAT teams in the U.S. Founded in 2019 by CEO Blake Resnick, the company has raised $157.2 million and employs 160 people.
Acceptance speech: David Benowitz, VP of marketing communications at BRINC, said the company — which relocated from Las Vegas — is one of the few that wasn’t founded in Seattle. “What we’ve really learned is just how strong the ecosystem here is for talent and the broader ecosystem that really supports companies like us,” he said.
Other finalists: AIM, Augmodo, Orbital Robotics, and Starfish Space. See this post for more background on this category.
Geek Give Back honorees, presented by BECU
Winners: AI House and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public (CIP)
The gist: AI House is a first-in-the-nation hub fostering collaboration in the burgeoning AI sector. Since launching a little more than a year ago, AI House has hosted more than 150 events at its collaborative space at Seattle’s Pier 70. The waterfront facility brings together entrepreneurs, investors, students and community leaders to foster big ideas and forge connections in the pursuit of AI innovation.
The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public (CIP) launched in 2019 to provide programs that teach everyone from students to seniors how to identify online rumors and misinformation.
Acceptance speeches: Yifan Zhang, managing director of AI House, accepted on behalf of the many partners — the City of Seattle, the state of Washington, ADA Developers Academy, and the AI2 Incubator — who she said kept “the North Star of really benefiting the Seattle ecosystem.” She singled out one team member, named Audrey, noting “there’s a lot of unseen, unglamorous work when it comes to community building.” Her team, she said, is doubling down on Seattle: “Our job is not done.”
Jevin West, co-founder of the UW’s Center for an Informed Public, opened with a joke at GeekWire’s expense — “Thank you TechCrunch” — before catching himself: “Rumors and misinformation spread pretty fast, and that’s the kind of thing that we’re dealing with most of the time.” He said his team is “sometimes not the most popular group in town when you’re calling out the kind of misinformation” found in the darker corners of the internet. But he said working with librarians and teachers across Washington makes it worthwhile, and closed with a shoutout to educators “helping the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
See this post for more on this category.
AI Innovation of the Year
Winner: Envive AI
The gist: Envive AI builds AI agents for online retailers to help boost conversion, retention, and discoverability. Brands such as Spanx, Coterie, Supergoop! and more use Envive’s AI-powered software to engage with customers as they shop on websites and apps. Envive also helps companies improve their visibility in generative AI search results. The company has raised $15 million in Series A funding.
Acceptance speech: Envive CEO Aniket Deosthali said the biggest gap in AI has been “the intelligence part” — the ability to learn in the real world. He illustrated the point personally: his niece was born the day ChatGPT launched, and watching “her biological neural networks learn and adapt” made him realize that three years of foundation model growth has been “missing that same ability to learn in the real world and make decisions better.” Envive, he said, is “one step in that direction.”
Other finalists: Avante, ConverzAI, Spangle, and Synthesize Bio. See this post for more background on this category.
Innovation of the Year, presented by Astound Business Solutions
Winner: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
The gist: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, known as PNNL, is a 60-year-old institution managed by the U.S. Department of Energy that performs research in areas including energy, chemistry, data analytics and other science and technology fields. More than 210 companies have their roots at the laboratory, and 3,213 patents have been issued for research that started at PNNL. Some of the latest work from the lab includes pioneering vitrification technology that safely locks hazardous waste in glass.
Acceptance speech: John Vienna, materials scientist at PNNL, said his team at Washington’s Hanford Site is working to keep waste out of the environment “virtually forever” and solve “a problem that’s been generations old.” Then he pulled a sample from his pocket — simulated nuclear waste glass — so the crowd could see what it looks like. “Not everybody would put nuclear waste glass in their pocket and walk around all day in Seattle,” he noted.
Other finalists: Alpenglow Biosciences; RevealDx; Starcloud; and VerAvanti. See this post for more background on this category.
Sustainable Innovation of the Year, presented by Amazon Sustainability
Winner: IUNU
The gist: The Seattle ag tech startup IUNU wants to bring computer vision and AI to the commercial greenhouse — deploying autonomous rail-mounted cameras and canopy-level sensors that can spot early signs of disease, track plant growth, and tell growers exactly what to do about it. Pronounced “you-knew,” IUNU was founded in 2013 by CEO Adam Greenberg. The company has deployed its technology across six countries, has additional offices in Canada and Netherlands, and has raised $60 million.
Acceptance speech: Accepting on behalf of Greenberg, John Allen VP of customer success, thanked customers across the world, from North America to Europe. “It’s been a lot of fun. The journey has been wild,” he said. “It continues to get more and more wild as we look at innovation and where we are today in AI.”
Other finalists: Helion, OCOChem, Ravel and TerraPower. See this post for more background on this category.
STEM Educators of the Year, presented by First Tech
Honorees: Fidel Ferrer, Tracy Drinkwater
The gist: Fidel Ferrer founded Project LEDO to provide low-income students and kids of color in the Portland area with a sense of belonging in the tech world. His nonprofit uses Lego robotics and STEM enrichment programs to foster teamwork and confidence while also supporting families with essential resources like laptops and food.
Tracy Drinkwater launched the Seattle Universal Math Museum to replace “math trauma” with playful, hands-on exploration. Her organization creates interactive exhibits and mobile programs that make complex mathematical concepts — like fractals and linear equations — tangible and accessible to learners of all ages.
Acceptance speeches: Ferrer redirected the honor to his co-founder and mother — a first-grade teacher at one of the elementary schools Project LEDO works with — who he said has shaped both his personal and professional career. Working with BIPOC students and low-income families in Portland, he said the goal is to use robotics to build “academic identity, motivational resilience and growth mindset” so that “the next generation of tech and global leaders resemble the demographic that we want to impact.” He closed by honoring his students: “It only takes one to change and believe in you to change the fate of your destiny.”
Drinkwater said the museum — which goes by SUMM — is “making a bold decision” to invest in human intelligence “alongside everyone else racing toward artificial intelligence,” arguing that strong math foundations are essential inputs for the AI-powered future the tech industry is building. The museum connects math to music, art, sports, and other subjects people already love, and last year held over 400 events reaching more than 23,000 people. “We get kids crying if they have to leave to go to soccer practice because they want to play with math more,” she said. “We never thought that would happen.”
See this post and this post for more background on this category.
Workplace of the year, presented by JLL
Winner: DAT Freight & Analytics
The gist: Oregon-based freight marketplace DAT Freight & Analytics says it has navigated multiple acquisitions in 18 months by treating integration as culture-building rather than a takeover, guided by their “One DAT” value. The company says it relies on concrete practices like Gallup engagement benchmarking (landing in the 75th percentile among tech organizations), structured pay equity analyses, and a Women in Tech mentorship program.
Acceptance speech: Jana Galbraith, chief people officer at DAT, kept it short and sweet, saying the company was honored to be part of the Seattle community. “We make freight move from point A to point B across the entire United States,” she said. “Important work to be done, and our team rallies around it every day.”
Other finalists: Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), Carbon Robotics, Humanly, and Yoodli. See this post for more background on this category.
CEO of the Year, presented by Wilson Sonsini
Winner: Luis Poggi, HouseWhisper AI
The gist: Poggi is co-founder and CEO of HouseWhisper, a real estate tech startup that uses AI to help alleviate the administrative overload that bogs some agents down. HouseWhisper emerged from stealth last year with $10 million in funding to back its conversational AI that acts as the ultimate 24/7 personal assistant, helping agents stay organized with help on following up with clients, scheduling, CRM updates and more. Poggi rose to VP of product and engineering during his more than 10 years at Zillow.
Acceptance speech: Poggi moved to Seattle from Argentina in 2010 and he now calls the city where his children were born his home. “This community has been amazing,” he said. “The talent is incredible and very, very, very generous. So I’m very excited to be building in this city.” He added that buying a home is “one of the most emotional and important decisions a person makes,” and HouseWhisper is building AI “to help professionals and the families get it right.”
Other finalists: Tony Huang of Possible Finance, Aina Abiodun of VertueLab, Sheila Stafford of TeamSense, and Karen Huh of Zucca. See this post for more background on this category.
Startup of the Year
Winner: Loopr AI
The gist: Loopr is a Seattle startup selling AI-powered computer vision software that helps manufacturers detect defects and quality issues in real time. Unlike legacy vision systems that require fixed cameras and custom installs, Loopr’s software is hardware-agnostic and can run on tablets, making it accessible across aerospace, automotive, and chemical manufacturing — where it is already working with 10 Fortune 1000 companies. Loopr was founded in 2021 by CEO Priyansha Bagaria, who drew inspiration from building defect-detection software for her family’s manufacturing business in India. The company raised $5.4 million in a funding round last August.
Acceptance speech: Eric Johnston, VP of Infrastructure at Loopr AI, accepted for Bagaria and thanked everyone involved with Loopr AI, from engineering to machine learning to operations to investors. “There’s so many people who do so much work to get us where we are,” he said. “It’s quite a community around us.”
Other finalists: mpathic, ElastixAI, Dropzone AI, and Dopl Technologies. See this post for more background on this category.
Thank you!
Big thanks to Astound Business Solutions, the presenting sponsor of the 2026 GeekWire Awards.
Thanks also to gold sponsors Amazon Sustainability, Baird, BECU, JLL, First Tech and Wilson Sonsini, and silver sponsors Prime Team Partners.
And thanks to everyone who nominated the finalists, voted for the winners and attended the celebration.
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